®«®  SONGS  AND 
SONG  WRITERS®® 


BY  HENRX         FINCK 


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The  Music  Lover's  Library 


SCHUBERT. 


The  Music  Lover's  Library 


Songs  and  Song 
Writers 


By 

Henry  T.  Finck 

Author  of  "  Wagner  and  His  Works?  "  Chopin  and 
Other  Musical  Essays,"  Etc. 


With  Portraits 


Charles    Scribner's    Sons 
New  York  ::  ::  ::  1900 


Copyright,  /poo,  by 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons 


Trow  Directory 

Printing  and  Bookbinding  Company 
New  York 


Music  Library 

WL 

2.10 


Preface 

MANY  music-lovers  have  doubtless  asked 
themselves  the  question  why  it  should 
have  remained  for  Schubert,  less  than  a  cen- 
tury ago,  to  practically  create  the  Lied,  or 
lyric  art-song.  In  the  first  two  chapters  of 
this  volume  I  have  endeavored  to  answer  this 
question.  The  great  composers  and  singers 
were  so  busy  with  mammoth  oratorios,  operas, 
symphonies,  and  sonatas,  that  the  short  song 
was  esteemed  hardly  worthy  of  their  serious 
attention;  just  as  in  England  a  story  used  to 
be  thought  of  no  consequence  unless  it  filled 
several  volumes.  It  is  now  conceded  that  a 
story  of  three  pages  may  give  as  much  evi- 
dence of  literary  genius  as  a  three-volume 
novel,  while  Schubert,  Franz,  and  others  have 
proved  the  same  principle  in  regard  to  music  ; 
and  at  present  every  composer  writes  a  dozen 
or  two,  if  not  a  hundred  or  two,  lyric  songs. 

The  singers,  too,  have  become  more  rational. 
Not  long  ago  they  considered  nothing  short  of 


Preface 

an  operatic  or  concert  aria  big  enough  for  a 
first-class  entertainment.  To-day  they  are 
quite  as  apt  to  choose  a  short  Lied  as  an  elab- 
orate aria.  Special  song  -  recitals  also  have 
multiplied  remarkably  of  late,  and  the  greatest 
operatic  artists  have  turned  their  attention  to 
them.  Much  has  been  written  about  the  big 
sums  paid  to  many  of  these  singers ;  but  in  the 
seasons  1898-99  and  1899-1900  some  of  them 
— notably  Mmes.  Lilli  Lehmann,  Nordica, 
Sembrich,  and  Schumann-Heink — gave  song- 
recitals  in  New  York  from  which  all  arias 
were  excluded  and  which  yielded  them  three 
or  four  times  as  much  as  an  evening  at  the 
opera.  I  call  especial  attention  to  this  fact  as 
a  sign  of  the  times.  The  public  is  obviously 
eager  to  hear  good  songs,  having  at  last  real- 
ized what  I  have  been  preaching  for  years — 
that  there  are  in  the  realm  of  song  more  neg- 
lected gems  than  in  any  other  department  of 
music. 

Robert  Schumann,  who  was  a  reviewer  as 
well  as  a  composer,  wrote,  more  than  half  a 
century  ago,  that  new  songs  were  printed  in 
Germany  every  year  in  such  abundance  that 
one  might  "  roof  over  the  whole  country  with 
them."  The  process  began  long  before  him 


Preface 

and  has  continued  ever  since,  till  the  number 
of  Lieder  has  become  as  the  blades  of  grass  in 
a  Western  prairie.  Unfortunately,  most  of 
these  countless  songs  have  no  more  individ- 
uality than  those  monotonous  green  blades; 
yet,  by  their  very  numbers,  they  absorb  the 
world's  attention,  and  the  occasional  beautiful 
flowers  scattered  among  them  are  born  to 
blush  unseen,  so  far  as  the  vast  majority  of  the 
public  are  concerned. 

How  is  this  unfortunate  condition  to  be 
remedied  ?  Professional  singers,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  of  the  greatest,  like  the  four 
just  referred  to,  do  not  usually  select  songs  for 
their  beauty,  but  for  the  opportunity  they  give 
them  to  show  ofi  their  voices  to  best  advan- 
tage. This  throws  on  the  amateurs  themselves 
the  task  of  finding  out  what  are  the  best  songs. 
Few  of  them,  however,  have  time  or  opportun- 
ity to  travel  over  the  whole  vast  field  them- 
selves, winnowing  the  chaff  from  the  wheat. 
It  is  to  save  them  this  trouble  that  the  present 
volume  has  been  prepared  —  the  first  of  its 
kind,  strange  to  say,  in  any  language. 

The  most  important  function  of  musical  crit- 
icism is,  in  my  opinion,  discovering  and  calling 
attention  to  good  things  the  merits  of  which 


Preface 

are  not  sufficiently  known  to  the  public,  and 
to  arouse  enthusiasm  for  them.  Therefore, 
instead  of  writing  a  compendium  of  useless 
knowledge  about  insignificant  composers  and 
antiquated  songs,  that  have  merely  a  historic 
interest — making  a  dry  catalogue  of  a  thousand 
pages  that  nobody  would  read — I  have  endeav- 
ored to  give  this  short  volume  an  eminently 
practical  character;  ignoring  what  is  anti- 
quated, trashy,  or  commonplace  ;  mentioning, 
so  far  as  possible,  whatever  is  good ;  but  dwell- 
ing in  detail  and  with  enthusiasm  only  on  the 
best ;  making  the  book,  in  short,  a  sort  of 
Song-Baedeker,  with  bibliographic  foot-notes 
for  the  benefit  of  students  who  wish  to  pursue 
the  subject  further. 

The  French  have  a  saying  that  the  good  is 
the  enemy  of  the  best ;  and  it  is  obvious  that 
where  there  is  so  very  much  to  choose  from  as 
in  the  vast  domain  of  lyric  song,  there  ought 
to  be  no  attention  for  anything  but  the  best. 
No  one  would  take  his  guests  to  a  ten-cent 
restaurant  if  he  could  have  a  Delmonico  din- 
ner for  the  same  price.  Yet,  musically  speak- 
ing, this  ridiculous  thing  is  done  a  thousand 
times  every  day.  The  best  songs  of  the  great 
masters  are  actually  cheaper  than  the  epheme- 


Preface 

ral  sheet-music  products  of  the  day.  Many 
persons,  to  be  sure,  prefer  ham  and  eggs  and 
mashed  potatoes  to  the  "  made-dishes "  of  a 
great  chef ;  but  their  palates  can  be  educated. 
A  year's  familiarity  with  the  songs  com- 
mended in  this  volume  would  make  even  the 
half-musical  ashamed  of  their  former  devotion 
to  trash,  and  open  up  endless  new  vistas  of  de- 
light to  them. 

This  applies  to  those,  too,  who  cannot  sing 
or  get  a  chance  to  listen  to  good  singers,  pro- 
vided only  they  have  a  piano.  One  of  my 
chief  delights  is  to  sit  at  the  piano  and  simply 
play  songs,  after  reading  the  words.  Many  of 
the  best  Lieder  have  been  transcribed  for  piano 
alone,  by  Liszt  and  others.  In  the  case  of 
those  that  have  not,  it  is  usually  easy  to  play 
in  the  vocal  part.  Indeed,  one  great  advan- 
tage of  such  songs  without  singers  is  that  they 
require  less  technique,  as  a  rule,  than  the  same 
quality  of  pieces  written  for  the  piano.  One 
of  the  easiest  composers  to  treat  in  this  way  is 
Franz,  whose  songs  thus  make  a  superb  addi- 
tion to  a  pianist's  library ;  but  the  player 
should  never  fail  to  read  the  poem,  too,  espe- 
cially if  he  is  so  lucky  as  to  understand  Ger- 
man ;  and  to-day  all  musicians  are  supposed  to 


Preface 

know  German  just  as,  formerly,  they  were  sup- 
posed to  know  Italian. 

The  editions  of  Lieder  by  the  great  masters 
— even  those  printed  in  Germany — now  usu- 
ally have  English  words,  too,  a  further  proof 
of  the  growing  demand  for  good  songs  in 
America  and  England.  Most  foreign  songs, 
unfortunately — and  most  good  songs,  unfortu- 
nately, are  foreign — are  marred  by  wretched 
translations.  For  this  reason  singers  should 
never  fail  to  get  an  edition  that  has  the  orig- 
inal text  as  well  as  a  translation,  and  learn  to 
sing  in  the  original  language  ;  partly,  also,  for 
the  sake  of  recognizing  the  titles,  which  I  have 
thought  it  best  to  refer  to,  as  a  rule,  in  the 
original,  because  translations  differ.  If  the 
amateur  wishes  a  literal  version  of  the  text  of  a 
particular  song,  any  German  cobbler,  or  hod- 
carrier  will  do  better  for  him  than  the  aver- 
age translator,  who  usually  sacrifices  sense, 
accent,  and  everything  else  to  the  ridiculous 
struggle  for  rhyme,  which  is  of  no  use  what- 
ever in  a  song.  What  incredible  atrocities  this 
custom  may  lead  to  we  see  in  the  case  of 
Franz's  setting  of  Mirza  Schafiy's  pretty  poem, 
Es  hat  die  Rose  sich  beklagt.  In  a  bare  prose 
version  the  original  runs  thus :  "  The  rose 


Preface 

complained  that  the  fragrance  imparted  to  it 
by  the  spring  was  gone  so  soon.  But  I  con- 
soled her  with  the  assurance  that  it  should  per- 
vade my  songs  and  there  live  forever."  Of 
this  a  translator  has  made  the  following  cari- 
cature : 

Oh,  why  so  soon,  the  rose  complained, 
Must  all  my  loveliness  be  dying  ? 
Oh !  far  too  soon  my  days  are  flying. 
Then  have  I  to  her  comfort  said, 
That  by  my  little  song  I'd  claimed 
A  lasting  spring  to  crown  her  head. 

Such  vandalism  ought  to  be  a  State-prison 
offence. 

In  reviewing  my  Chopin  and  other  Musical 
Essays  the  critic  of  the  London  Athenceum  re- 
ferred to  the  author  as  "  a  typical  exemplar  of 
what  may  be  called  free  thought  in  music." 
The  reader  will  probably  find  a  considerable 
amount  of  "free  thought"  in  this  volume,  too, 
and  it  will  perhaps  in  some  cases  annoy,  if  not 
anger,  him.  But  I  am  convinced  that  there  is 
in  the  musical  world  too  much  parroting  of 
traditional  opinions,  and  that  we  need  to  adjust 
our  opera-glasses  anew  two  or  three  times  dur- 
ing every  hundred  years.  The  opinions  ad- 


Preface 

vanced  in  this  volume  may  in  some  cases  be 
wrong ;  but  they  are  at  any  rate  my  own  opin- 
ions. Not  a  single  song  have  I  commented  on 
without  having  played  it  over  myself ;  nor 
have  I  hesitated  to  say,  for  instance,  that  most 
of  Beethoven's  songs  are  poor  stuff,  or  that  of 
Schumann's  two  hundred  and  forty-five  songs 
only  twenty  are  first  class ;  any  more  than  I 
hesitate  to  say  that  of  my  four  favorite  song- 
writers two  are  still  living,  and  one  is  an 
American ;  the  four  being  Schubert,  Franz, 
Grieg,  and  MacDowell. 

H.  T.  F. 

NEW  YORK,  October  i,  1900. 


Contents 
i 

Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 

Page 

Songs  of  Savages 4 

Early  European  Folk-Songs 7 

Folk-Song  Precedes  Art-Song 8 

Origin  of  Folk-Songs 11 

The  First  Song-Writers 12 

Troubadour  Accompaniments 13 

Folk-Song  in  the  Church .     .  14 

What  Led  to  Italian  Opera 16 

Jumbomania  and  the  Lied 18 

Bach  and  Handel      ...  19 


II 

German  Song-Writers  before  Schubert 

Gluck 22 

Haydn 24 

Mozart 26 

Beethoven 28 

Reichardt,  Zelter,  and  Zumsteeg 34 

Spohr,  Marschner,  and  Weber 37 

III 

Scbttbert 


Contents 
IV 

German  Song- Writers  after  Schubert 

Page 

Loewe  and  the  Art-Ballad 105 

Mendelssohn 109 

Schumann 112 

Franz 123 

Brahms 154 

Jensen  and  Others 161 

Wagner,  Strauss,  and  Others 167 


V 

Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

Liszt 17S 

Rubinstein 184 

Tchaikovsky  and  Dvorak 188 

Chopin  and  Paderewski 191 


VI 

Scandinavian  Song-Writers 
Grieg 198 


VII 

Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

VIII 

English  and  American  Song- Writers 
MacDowell      .  .  238 


Illustrations 

Schubert Frontispiece 


FACING 
PAGE 


Schumann 

112 

Franz 

124 

Jensen 

162 

Liszt 

176 

Rubinstein  . 

184 

Grieg 

198 

MacDowell 

238 

Songs  and  Song -Writers 


I 

Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 

JENNY  LIND  appreciated  no  other  com- 
pliment so  much  as  being  called  "  the 
Swedish  nightingale,"  and  the  same  was  true 
of  Christine  Nilsson.  No  one  who  has  ever 
heard  a  nightingale  singing  in  his  grove  will 
wonder  at  this.  "  Full,  rich,  and  liquid,  the 
notes  fall  with  a  strange  loudness  into  the  still 
night,"  writes  Benjamin  Kidd.  "  Sweet, 
sw-e-e-t,  sw-e-e-t — lower  and  tenderer  the  long- 
drawn-out  notes  come,  the  last  of  the  series 
prolonged  till  the  air  vibrates  as  if  a  wire  had 
been  struck,  and  the  solitary  singer  seems  al- 
most to  choke  with  the  overmastering  inten- 
sity of  feeling  in  the  final  effort." 

While  musicians  are  bound  to  acknowledge 
and  admire  the  sensuous  beauty  of  tone  and 
the  emotional  intensity  and  sincerity  of  bird- 
song,  there  is  another  point  of  view  from 
which  the  Swedish  prima  donnas  had  less 
reason  to  feel  proud  of  having  their  song  com- 
pared to  that  of  a  bird.  Strictly  speaking,  bird- 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


song  is  not  true  song,  but  belongs  in  a  class  by 
itself,  intermediate  between  vocal  and  instru- 
mental music.  It  is  vocal  in  so  far  as  the 
bird  uses  his  own  voice,  but  instrumental  inas- 
much as  no  words  are  used.  What  raises  man 
above  the  animals  is  articulate  speech  ;  and  it 
is  the  power  of  adding  speech  to  song,  poetry 
to  melody,  that  makes  human  song  vocal  in  the 
fullest  and  highest  sense  of  the  word.  From 
this  point  of  view  it  would  be  the  rankest  flat- 
tery to  a  nightingale  to  compare  him  to  Jenny 
Lind  or  Christine  Nilsson. 

SONGS  OF  SAVAGES 

The  lower  races  of  mankind  do  not  yet  make 
much  use  of  this  higher  and  unique  double 
function  of  the  human  voice.  Though  they 
have  plenty  of  crude  music  their  tunes  are 
usually  songs  without  words,  or  with  words 
that  do  not  mean  anything.  Miss  Alice 
Fletcher  says,  in  her  suggestive  Study  of 
Omaha  Indian  Music,  that  "  comparatively  few 
Indian  songs  are  supplied  with  words."  Wal- 
laschek,  summing  up  his  researches  relating 
to  the  lower  races  in  all  parts  of  the  world, 
declares  that  "  the  most  striking  feature  of  all 
the  savage  songs  is  the  frequent  occurrence  of 
words  with  no  meaning  whatever";  and  that 

4 


Songs  of  Savages 


"  in  primitive  times  vocal  music  is  not  at  all  a 
union  of  poetry  and  music.  We  find,  on  the 
contrary,  vocal  music  among  tribes  which, 
owing  to  the  insufficient  development  of  lan- 
guage, cannot  possibly  have  any  kind  of 
poetry."  In  his  entertaining  book  on  the 
Australian  savages  Lumholtz  relates  that  "  they 
themselves  sometimes  do  not  understand  the 
words  which  they  sing " ;  and  Curr  tells  us 
how  songs  that  are  sung  at  the  corroborees, 
or  nocturnal  dances,  pass  from  one  tribe  to 
others  who  often  have  no  idea  of  the  meaning 
of  the  words,  since  every  one  of  the  wandering 
tribes  has  its  own  language.* 

Not  all  the  songs  of  savages,  however,  have 
the  instrumental  character  just  referred  to. 
Many  of  them  are  improvisations  sung  in  the 
evening  on  the  events  of  the  day,  and  in  these 
cases  the  words  are  as  important  as  the  tunes, 
if  not  more  so  ;  though  the  "  sentiments  "  are,  of 
course,  extremely  trivial  and  selfish.  Thus 
Ehrenreich  relates  f  how  the  Botocudos  of 
Brazil  amuse  themselves  in  the  evening  by 
singing  "  To-day  we  had  a  successful  hunt;  we 
killed  this  or  that  animal ;  now  we  have  enough 

*  Lumholtz,  Among  Cannibals,  pp.  157-158;  Curr,  The 
Australian  Race,  vol.  i.,  p.  92. 

t  Zeitsc hrift  fur  Ethnologic,  vol.  xix.,  p.  32. 

5 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


to  eat ;  meat  is  good  to  eat,  brandy  is  good  to 
drink,"  and  so  on.  A  good  sample  of  the 
aboriginal  Australian  song  is  the  following : 

The  Kangaroo  ran  very  fast, 

But  I  ran  faster ; 

The  Kangaroo  was  fat ; 

I  ate  him. 

Kangaroo !    Kangaroo ! 

The  American  Indians  had  war -songs, 
prayers  for  good  weather  and  for  success  in 
various  enterprises,  calls  to  ceremonial  repast, 
songs  of  thanks,  mystery  songs,  dance  and 
game  songs,  and  so  on.  In  these  we  have  the 
germs  of  the  folk-songs  of  mediaeval  Europe. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  our  own  ancestors 
were,  two  thousand  years  ago,  barbarians  like 
the  American  Indians.  Tacitus  relates  that  it 
was  the  custom  of  the  northern  warriors  to 
sing  the  exploits  of  their  great  heroes,  and  that 
they  had  another  kind  of  war-songs  which  they 
used  to  arouse  a  warlike  spirit  in  themselves 
and  at  the  same  time  to  inspire  terror  in  the 
enemy.  On  festive  occasions,  he  says,  "the 
barbarians  made  the  valley  and  mountains 
echo  their  joyous  song  and  their  loud,  wild 
noises." 


Early  European  Folk-Songs 


EARLY   EUROPEAN   FOLK-SONGS 

It  would  be  interesting  to  know  just  how  our 
barbarian  ancestors  sang,  and  what  changes 
their  music  passed  through  before  it  assumed 
the  form  of  the  mediaeval  folk-songs  that  have 
been  preserved  for  us.  But  there  was  no 
phonograph  in  those  days,  nor  any  practical 
way  of  writing  music.  When  Christianity  be- 
gan to  extend  its  influence  more  widely,  in 
the  seventh  century,  the  aboriginal  music  of 
the  Teutons,  moreover,  came  into  conflict  with 
the  imported  Gregorian  chant  of  the  Church, 
and  the  churchmen  made  systematic  efforts  to 
destroy  the  old  heathen  tunes  that  were  dear  to 
the  populace  from  long  association  with  their 
customs  and  superstitions.  Some  centuries 
later,  when  the  church  composers  began  to  re- 
cord music  in  a  permanent  way,  the  heathen 
folk-music  was  still  left  out  in  the  cold ;  for 
these  composers  were  naturally  more  anxious, 
as  Dr.  Riemann  has  aptly  remarked,  to  hand 
down  to  posterity  the  products  of  their  own 
pens  than  the  folk-songs,  which  were  like  wild 
flowers  that  have  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

Luckily,  however,  they  did  not  disdain,  on 
occasion,  to  adopt  these  folk-songs  as  cantus 
firmi,  or  themes,  and  weave  them  as  tenor  melo- 

7 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


dies,  not  only  into  their  secular,  but  also  their 
sacred  compositions.  This  process  began  as 
early  as  the  twelfth  century,  and  to  it  we  owe 
the  preservation  of  not  a  few  of  the  old  songs — 
though  just  how  old,  no  one  can  say.  In  some 
cases  the  popular  melody  was  apparently  kept 
intact ;  in  others,  where  it  was  introduced  into 
a  sacred  composition,  it  had  to  be  disguised, 
more  or  less,  on  account  of  the  frivolous  or  ri- 
bald text  associated  with  it ;  and  still  more  fre- 
quently the  exigencies  of  composition  induced 
the  writers  to  disguise  the  tunes  by  shortening, 
lengthening,  or  otherwise  changing  them. 
However,  by  comparing  the  different  versions 
of  the  same  melody  made  by  several  composers, 
scholars  have  been  enabled  to  restore  some  of 
the  originals  with  tolerable  accuracy. 

FOLK-SONG  PRECEDES  ART-SONG 

Historians  of  music  have  an  incomprehensible 
habit  of  speaking  of  a  special  "  period  of  folk- 
song," and  they  discourse  learnedly  in  regard  to 
its  date — whether  it  was  in  the  fourteenth  or 
the  sixteenth  century.  Rockstro  gives  the 
readers  of  his  History  of  Music  the  extraordi- 
nary information  (pp.  37-41)  that  secular  song 
originated  among  the  Troubadours  and  Minne- 
singers, passed  from  them  to  the  Meistersingers, 

8 


Folk-Song  Precedes  Art-Song 

and  thence  "  brought  its  beneficent  influence  to 
bear  upon  the  great  mass  of  the  people,"  in  the 
form  of  the  national  or  folk  song !  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  folk-song  has  always  existed  in  one 
form  or  another,  as  we  have  just  seen  ;  and  as 
regards  the  Troubadours  (who  flourished  from 
the  eleventh  to  the  fourteenth  centuries)  there 
is  every  reason  to  believe  that  most  of  their 
tunes  were  either  copies  of  Gregorian  chants 
or  imitations  of  the  current  folk-songs.  Dr. 
Schneider,  after  an  elaborate  discussion  of  this 
question,*  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is 
little  originality  in  the  Troubadour  songs  or  in 
those  of  the  German  Minnesingers ;  while  the 
pedantic  artisans  who  vaingloriously  called 
themselves  Mastersingers,  not  only  derived  most 
of  their  tunes  from  the  church,  but  were  sworn 
enemies  of  the  naive,  simple  folk-music.  Wagner 
brings  out  this  point  vividly  in  his  comic  opera 
Die  Meister singer,  wherein  these  masters  express 
their  contempt  for  the  beautiful  melody  Wal- 
ter sings,  when  he  explains — in  answer  to  their 
question  as  to  who  was  his  teacher — that  the 
songs  of  birds  and  other  sounds  of  nature  had 
taught  him  how  to  sing. 

Rockstro's  radical  error  lies  in  the  assump- 

*H.  E.  Schneider,  Das  deutsche  Lied  in  geschichtlichcr  Ent- 
•untkelung.     Three  vols.     Leipzig,  1863.     Vol.  i.,  p.  237  seq. 

9 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


tion  that  music  was  given  to  the  people  by  pro- 
fessionals. As  a  matter  of  fact,  music  "just 
growed "  among  the  people.  They  invented 
songs  for  every  phase  of  life,  from  the  cradle  to 
the  grave,  in  the  cities  as  well  as  in  the  country. 
Lovers,  soldiers,  students,  hunters,  peasants, 
shepherds,  workingmen — all  had  their  peculiar 
ditties.  There  were  songs  serious,  songs  com- 
ic or  satirical ;  songs  relating  to  the  home,  the 
field,  the  forest,  the  sea;  songs  of  nature  and 
travel,  of  parting  and  reunion ;  drinking,  wed- 
ding, mourning  songs ;  with  a  thousand  others 
of  local,  national,  or  historic  interest.  For  local 
color  the  Laplander  has  his  reindeer-songs,  the 
Russian  his  songs  of  the  steppe  and  the  snow- 
field,  the  Southern  negro  his  plantation-songs, 
the  Swiss  and  Tyrolean  mountaineer  his  Yodler, 
and  so  on  in  all  parts  of  the  world.* 

*  The  discussion  of  these  various  national  phases  of  music  would 
fill  a  big  volume.  Indeed,  Carl  Engel  has  compiled  a  book  of 
over  a  hundred  pages — The  Literature  of  National  Music  (Lon- 
don, 1879) — containing  merely  the  titles  and  brief  descriptions  of 
important  collections  of  national  music,  or  of  treatises  on  the  sub- 
ject. See  also  the  section  on  national  music  in  the  Annotated 
Bibliography  of  Fine  Art  and  Music  by  Russell  Sturgis  and  H.  E. 
Krehbiel,  pp.  61-63.  Some  remarks  on  "  exotic  "  folk-songs  may 
be  found  in  my  article  "  Music  in  Russia,  Poland,  Scandinavia, 
and  Hungary,"  printed  in  Professor  Paine's  Famous  Composers 
and  Their  Works,  Boston,  1891.  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  845-866.  For 
fuller  details  see  Mrs.  Wodehouse's  excellent  article  on  Song  in 

10 


Origin  of  Folk-Songs 


ORIGIN  OF  FOLK-SONGS 

It  is  probable  that,  as  I  have  said  elsewhere, 
"  some  of  the  finest  folk-songs  were  first  in- 
vented by  crude  peasants  in  moments  of  grief 
or  joy.  Such  crudities  as  remained  in  this 
song  were  gradually  removed  as  it  went  from 
mouth  to  mouth,  as  pebbles  are  polished  by 
constant  friction ;  and  finally  a  melody  re- 
mained as  finished  and  epigrammatic  as  those 
proverbs  of  the  people  which  have  a  similar 
origin,  and  as  perfect  in  form  as  a  professional 
genius  could  have  made  them."  On  the  other 
hand,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  some  of 
the  best  folk-tunes  may  have  been  conceived 
by  men  of  genius.  Suppose  a  Schubert  or  a 
Wagner  were  born  among  peasants  (such  a 
thing  is  quite  possible)  in  a  region  where  there 
was  not  even  a  piano.  Instead  of  writing  art- 
songs  with  elaborate  accompaniments,  or  still 
more  elaborate  operas,  such  a  genius  would 
have  to  confine  himself  to  originating  simple 
melodies.  He  might  enjoy  some  local  fame 
as  a  tune-maker,  but  that  fame  would  die  with 

Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  584- 
632.  This  article  has,  indeed,  much  more  to  say  about  folk-song 
than  about  art-song.  The  evolution  of  folk-song  from  a  formal 
point  of  view  is  admirably  discussed  in  chapter  iii.  of  Dr.  Parry's 
Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music, 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


him,  and  in  the  meantime  his  song  would  have 
travelled  from  mouth  to  mouth  to  distant  vil- 
lages and  countries,  every  one  enjoying  it  but 
no  one  caring  for  its  author's  name. 

THE  FIRST  SONG-WRITERS 

These  considerations  explain  why  folk-songs 
seem  national  rather  than  individual  products, 
and  why  it  was  that  for  the  first  thousand  years 
of  the  Christian  era  music  was  nameless.  There 
-were  plenty  of  song-s,  but  no  song-writers.  Pro- 
fessed, deliberate  inventors,  who  proudly  at- 
tached their  names  to  the  poems  and  tunes 
conceived  by  them  are  not  encountered  before 
the  eleventh  century,  when  we  come  across  the 
Troubadours  in  Southern  France.  The  names 
of  about  four  hundred  and  fifty  Troubadours  of 
all  ranks  have  come  down  to  us ;  but,  as  just 
stated,  their  art  was  derived  chiefly  from  the 
folk-song,  notwithstanding  the  derivation  of 
their  name  from  trobar  or  trouver,  to  find  or  in- 
vent. We  must  also  bear  in  mind  that  the 
creative  faculty  is  rare  always  and  everywhere, 
and  that  we  therefore  naturally  expect  to  find 
more  originality  and  merit  in  miscellaneous 
folk-songs,  the  productions  of  millions  of  name- 
less singers,  than  in  the  courtly  songs  of  a  few 
hundred  named  Troubadours. 


Troubadour  Accompaniments 


TROUBADOUR  ACCOMPANIMENTS 

Inasmuch  as  many  of  the  Troubadours  and 
Minnesingers  travelled  about,  like  common 
minstrels,  from  castle  to  castle,  exercising  their 
art  to  make  a  living,  they  may  be  classed  among 
professionals.  It  is  likely  that  in  this  capacity 
they  helped  to  develop  one  side  of  their  art 
which  chiefly  distinguishes  the  art-song  from 
folk  -  song  —  the  instrumental  accompaniment. 
While  folk-songs  are  commonly  conceived  as 
melodies  requiring  no  accompaniment  and 
usually  sung  without  it,  the  mediaeval  bards 
under  consideration  habitually  sang  to  an  in- 
strumental accompaniment.  That  no  special 
importance  was,  however,  attached  to  it  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  the  old  musical  manu- 
scripts contain  no  traces  of  these  instrumental 
accompaniments.  We  know  that  various  in- 
struments were  used — mediaeval  varieties  of  the 
fiddle,  the  harp,  the  zither,  the  bagpipe,  etc.— 
but  just  how  they  sustained  the  voices  re- 
mains a  matter  of  conjecture.  In  many  cases, 
no  doubt,  the  instrument  simply  played  along 
the  vocal  melody,  while  the  harplike  instru- 
ments supplied  an  occasional  arpeggio,  possibly 
a  few  chords — though  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  use  of  chords  implies  some  knowledge 

13 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


of  harmony,  and  the  harmonic  sense  was  only 
just  beginning  to  develop  at  this  time.  In  all 
probability  the  chords  p'ayed  by  these  min- 
strels were  as  erratic  as  those  that  so  many  of 
our  untrained  singers  perpetrate  when  they  try 
to  play  their  accompaniments  on  the  pianoforte. 

FOLK-SONG  IN  THE   CHURCH 

The  Troubadours  and  Minnesingers  may  be 
regarded  as  the  professional  representatives  of 
medigeval  secular  art.  Not  content  with  capt- 
uring them,  the  folk-song  also  invaded  the 
province  of  church  music.  Believing  that  the 
service  could  be  made  more  impressive  by  again 
allowing  the  congregation — as  in  the  early  da}^s 
of  Christianity — to  join  in  with  song,  Luther 
adopted  a  number  of  the  most  popular  folk- 
songs and  substituted  them  for  the  monotonous 
Gregorian  chants.  The  populace  could  thus 
give  vent  to  their  enthusiasm  in  a  language  that 
they  understood  ;  and  the  enemies  of  Luther 
were  doubtless  right  in  holding  that  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Reformation  was  greatly  promoted 
by  thus  invoking  the  aid  of  congregational 
folk-song. 

This  was  in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  we 
have  already  seen  that  the  church  composers 
had  begun  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century  to 

14 


Folk-Song  in  the  Church 


weave  folk-songs  into  their  compositions.  The 
result  was,  however,  more  ingenious  than  ar- 
tistic ;  and  this  brings  us  to  an  important  point 
— the  inferiority  of  the  mediaeval  art-music  to 
the  folk-song.  The  unknown  creators  of  folk- 
songs not  only  invented  their  own  verses  as 
well  as  their  tunes,  but  invented  both  at  the 
same  time.  We  have  here  an  interesting  illus- 
tration of  the  adage  that  "  extremes  meet."  In 
all  genuine  folk-songs  words  and  music  are  born 
twins,  just  as  they  are  in  the  music  dramas  of 
Richard  Wagner.  In  the  folk-song,  as  Wagner 
himself  wrote,  "  the  word-poem  and  the  tone- 
poem  are  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  peo- 
ple never  think  of  singing  their  songs  with 
out  words.  ...  If  in  course  of  time  and 
among  different  peoples  a  melody  varies,  the 
poem  varies  with  it ;  separation  of  the  two  is 
inconceivable  to  those  who  sing  them;  they 
seem  to  belong  together,  like  husband  and 
wife." 

Even  when  folk-music  was  harmonized,  as  in 
the  madrigals  and  frottole  which  were  so  popu- 
lar in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  the 
voices  were  managed  in  such  a  way  that  the 
words  were  still  intelligible.  But  in  the  poly- 
phonic (t.e.,  many-voiced)  art-music  all  respect 
for  the  words  was  cast  aside  and  the  melodic 
harmonies  were  woven  into  such  complicated 

15 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


woofs  that  it  became  impossible  to  follow  and 
understand  the  words. 

With  some  honorable  exceptions  the  compos- 
ers of  polyphonic  art-music  were  too  much  in- 
clined to  treat  their  tasks  as  mathematical  prob- 
lems or  Chinese  puzzles  rather  than  as  a  means 
of  artistic  expression.  Sometimes  vocal  pieces 
were  written  with  as  many  as  thirty  different 
parts.  In  some  of  the  canons  the  second  voice 
had  to  begin  at  the  end  of  the  opening  melody 
and  crawl  backward  like  a  crawfish — hence 
called  a  crab-canon.  In  other  cases  the  singers 
had  to  guess  at  what  bar  they  must  come  in, 
or  guess  what  key  they  must  sing  in  !  Some- 
times the  voices  had  to  sing  together  in  differ- 
ent time.  The  direction  clama  ne  cesses  (bawl 
without  stopping)  meant  that  the  rests  were 
to  be  ignored ;  noctem  in  diem  vertere,  that  the 
light  notes  must  be  read  as  dark  ones,  etc. 

WHAT   LED   TO   ITALIAN   OPERA 

It  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  facts  in  the 
history  of  music,  that  Italian  opera  originated 
partly  in  a  spirit  of  rebellion  against  this  com- 
plicated polyphonic  music,  which  had  once 
more  degraded  the  human  voice  to  the  level  of 
an  inarticulate  instrument.  The  inventors  of 
Italian  opera  held,  with  the  Greek  philosopher 

16 


What  Led  to  Italian  Opera 


Plato,  that  of  the  three  components  of  music, 
speech  was  first  in  importance,  rhythm  next, 
and  melody  third.  They  not  only  tabooed  the 
Chinese  puzzles  of  the  church  composers,  but 
they  went  so  far  in  their  eagerness  to  do  justice 
to  the  words  as  to  manifest  in  their  composi- 
tions what  one  of  them  boastingly  called  "  a 
noble  contempt  for  melody  " — nobile  sprezzatura 
del  canto. 

To  those  of  us  who  remember  the  operas  of 
Rossini  and  Donizetti,  in  which  the  words  are 
mere  pegs  for  the  florid  tunes,  this  seems  a 
strange  attitude  for  Italians  to  assume.  In 
truth  it  was  not  much  more  than  a  fad — an  at- 
tempt to  revive  the  glories  of  the  Greek  dra- 
ma, in  which  music  was  united  with  the  spoken 
words.  Italian  opera  soon  threw  overboard  the 
respect  for  words  shown  by  its  originators,  and 
its  chief  attraction  became  the  da  capo  aria,  the 
object  of  which  was  to  show  off  a  singer's  lung 
power  and  agility.  The  favorites  of  the  eight- 
eenth-century Italian  audiences  were  artificial 
male  sopranos,  like  Farinelli,  who  was  frantical- 
ly applauded  for  such  circus  tricks  as  beating 
a  trumpeter  in  holding  on  to  a  note,  or  racing 
with  an  orchestra  and  getting  ahead  of  it ;  or 
Caffarelli,  who  entertained  his  audiences  by 
singing,  in  one  breath,  a  chromatic  chain  of  trills 
up  and  down  two  octaves.  Caffarelli  was  a  pu- 

17 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


pil  of  the  famous  vocal  teacher  Porpora,  who 
wrote  operas  consisting  chiefly  of  monotonous 
successions  of  florid  arias  resembling  the  music 
that  is  now  written  for  flutes  and  violins. 

To  such  depths  had  art-song  degenerated  on 
the  operatic  stage.  Not  all  Italian  opera-com- 
posers, it  is  true,  allowed  their  music  thus  to  de- 
generate into  mere  displays  of  instrumental  vo- 
calism.  Lulli  and  Rameau  in  France,  Purcell  in 
England  were  also  among  those  who  had  higher 
ideals.  But  it  took  a  courageous  and  deter- 
mined reformer  like  Gluck  to  establish  the  great 
principle  of  the  music-drama  that  "the  play's 
the  thing  "  and  the  music  merely  a  means  of 
heightening  the  effect  of  the  words,  as  a  painter 
brightens  a  sketch  by  coloring  it.  He  was  the 
right  man  at  the  right  time  ;  yet  what  he  did 
was  no  more  than  applying  to  the  opera  what 
had  long  been  the  vital  principle  of  folk-song. 

JUMBOMANIA  AND  THE   LIED 

The  folk-song,  however,  did  not  get  the  credit 
for  having  anticipated  and  suggested  this  great 
reform.  On  the  contrary,  it  languished  in  ob- 
scurity and  contempt.  For  nearly  two  centu- 
ries, from  Scarlatti  to  Donizetti,  the  operatic 
aria  flourished  rankly,  ruling  the  musical  world 
not  only  in  the  theatre  but  in  the  cantata  and 

18 


Bach  and  Handel 


the  oratorio.  It  was  the  "  big  thing  "  in  vocal 
music,  as  the  sonata  was  for  the  piano-forte,  the 
symphony  for  the  orchestra.  During  all  this 
time  the  short  song  was  looked  on  as  hardly 
worthy  of  the  attention  of  serious  composers. 
Even  when  a  simple  song  was  introduced  in 
a  larger  work  it  went  by  the  name  of  "  ode  " 
or  "  aria."  The  folk-song,  or  Lied,  was  tabooed 
in  professional  circles.  We  have  here,  in  fact, 
another  illustration  of  what  I  have  elsewhere 
called  Jumboism  *  or  Jumbomania — the  ten- 
dency to  esteem  art  in  proportion  to  its  bulk, 
to  measure  it  with  a  yardstick — the  tendency 
which  even  in  the  nineteenth  century  prevented 
Chopin  and  Franz  from  being  at  once  recog- 
nized as  geniuses  of  the  first  rank,  because  they 
wrote  no  five-act  operas  or  four-story  sympho- 
nies, but  only  short  pieces  and  songs.  On  this 
principle  an  elephant  like  Jumbo  would  be  a 
finer  animal  than  a  humming  bird  or  a  bird  of 
paradise,  a  sunflower  more  beautiful  than  a 
pansy. 

BACH  AND   HANDEL 

From  this  point  of  view — and  from  this  only 
—can  we  understand  why  it  remained  for 
Schubert  to  practically  create  the  lyric  art- 

*  Chopin  and  Other  Musical  Essays,  1889,  pp.  6-8. 
19 


Folk-Song  and  Art-Song 


song  which  we  now  call  the  Lied.  Nothing 
could  more  vividly  illustrate  the  contemptuous 
disregard  of  the  Lied  in  the  eighteenth  century 
than  the  fact  that  Bach  and  Handel  (both  born 
in  1685)  paid  no  attention  to  it.  Bach  wrote 
thirty  volumes  of  cantatas,  passions,  and  other 
species  of  vocal  music,  but  only  two  Lieder — 
according  to  some  authorities  only  one.* 
Handel  wrote  thirty-nine  Italian  and  three 
German  operas,  two  Italian  and  nineteen  Eng- 
lish oratorios,  twenty  anthems,  etc.,  but  only 
one  song — a  hunting  song  for  bass  voice,  f 

There  was  of  course  nothing  in  the  world  to 
prevent  Bach  and  Handel  from  writing  im- 
mortal Lieder,  had  they  felt  inclined  to  do  so. 
Bach's  cantatas  contain  many  arias  that  are  as 
melodious  and  as  expressive  as  a  Schubert 
song,  while  his  recitatives  are  often  so  flexible 
and  eloquent,  so  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the 
words,  so  passionately  dramatic,  that  they  fore- 
shadow the  latest  developments  of  the  Lied  and 
the  music-drama  in  Franz,  Liszt,  and  Wagner. 
Handel  is  more  florid  and  less  dramatic  than 

*Spitta:  Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  1880,  vol.  i.,  pp.  759,  834, 
835,  accepts  the  Erbauliche  Gedanken  eines  Tabackrauchers  as 
genuine,  while  rejecting  the  Willst  du  dein  Herz  mir  schenken  ; 
whereas  Schneider  (vol.  iii.,  p.  184)  believes  that  both  were 
written  by  Bach. 

t See  Grove,  vol.  iii.,  p.  621. 

20 


Bach  and  Handel 


Bach,  yet  his  operas  and  oratorios  also  contain 
arias  in  abundance  that  vie  with  our  best 
Lieder.* 

Unlike  Bach  and  Handel,  the  great  German 
classics  who  followed  them — Gluck,  Haydn, 
Mozart,  Beethoven — did  write  a  number  of 
lyric  songs,  some  of  them  genuine  Lieder, 
wherefore  our  attention  must  be  bestowed  on 
them.  We  shall  find,  however,  that  they,  too, 
were  unconsciously  infected  with  Jumbomania, 
for  they  treated  the  Lied  as  a  mere  trifle,  un- 
worthy of  their  best  efforts. 

*  The  great  song  specialist,  Robert  Franz,  spent  half  his  life 
editing  and  restoring  the  works  of  Bach  and  Handel.  He  issued 
several  collections  of  arias  selected  from  their  vocal  works  which 
cannot  be  too  highly  commended  to  the  attention  of  singers. 


21 


II 

German  Song -Writers  Before  Schubert 

GLUCK 

/^*  LUCK  was  already  sixty-three  years  old 
V-J  when  (in  1770)  he  wrote  his  first  and 
only  songs  with  piano-forte  accompaniment. 
They  were  a  musical  setting  of  seven  odes  by 
the  poet  Klopstock,  and  they  appeared  in  print 
under  the  elaborate  title  of  "  Klopstocks  Oden 
und  Lieder  beym  Clavier  zu  singen  in  Musik  ge- 
setzt  von  Herrn  Ritter  Gluck,  cum  Priv.  S.  C.  M., 
zu  finden  in  Wien  bey  Art  aria  &  Compagnie"  * 

Before  Klopstock  had  had  a  chance  to  hear 
this  setting  of  his  odes  he  had  been  told  "  by  a 
great  authority  "  (as  he  wrote  to  a  friend)  that 
Gluck  was  "the  only  poet  among  the  com- 
posers," and  that  all  who  had  heard  these 
songs  had  been  much  pleased  with  them.  This 
admiration  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  share, 

*  No.  2,250  of  the  Edition  Peters  comprises  a  reprint  of  this 
original  edition,  besides  two  arias,  with  an  appendix  containing 
explanatory  notes  by  Max  Friedlander. 

22 


Gluck 

for  these  songs  are  simple  to  the  verge  of 
puerility.  The  melody  moves  along  in  con- 
ventional intervals  without  charm  or  original- 
ity, and  the  only  harmonic  touch  of  interest 
that  I  have  noticed  is  in  Der  Jiingling,  after  the 
words  "  Donner  Sturm."  It  is  amusing  to  read 
that  one  day  when  Gluck  and  his  niece  paid 
Kiopstock  a  visit  the  poet  wished  the  niece 
to  sing  for  him  the  Willkommen  du  silberner 
Mond,  but  that  Gluck  objected  on  the  ground 
that  she  could  not  yet  do  it,  whereupon  "  he 
sang  it  himself  with  a  rough  voice  "  ;  amusing, 
I  say,  because  the  ode  is  as  simple  as  a  folk- 
song. The  niece  did,  however,  sing  for  the 
poet  "in  an  enchanting  way"  the  ode,  Ich  bin 
ein  deutsches  Mddchen,  which  has  been  incor- 
porated in  a  school-book  for  German  girls,  and 
is  therefore  the  best  known  of  these  melodies. 
The  best  of  them,  however,  is  Die  Sommer- 
nacht. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  these  odes  were 
composed  just  about  the  time  that  Gluck  wrote 
his  famous  Alceste  preface,  in  which  he  ex- 
plained his  operatic  reforms.  As  was  to  be 
expected,  he  applied  to  the  song  with  piano- 
forte accompaniment  the  same  reforms  as  to 
the  operatic  aria,  eliminating  all  superfluous 
ornament,  adapting  the  melodic  accent  care- 
fully to  the  word-accent,  and  making  the 

23 


German  Song-Writers  Before  Schubert 

melody  heighten  the  effect  of  the  text  as  color 
does  that  of  a  sketch  in  painting.  In  this,  and 
in  this  alone,  lies  Gluck's  title  to  remembrance 
as  a  song-writer.  He  evidently  did  not  con- 
sider it  worth  while  to  bestow  as  much  care  on 
a  simple,  detached  song  as  on  an  operatic  aria. 

HAYDN 

Regarded  simply  as  music,  Haydn's  songs 
are  much  more  interesting  than  Gluck's;  but 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  ideal  Lied  they 
are  inferior,  because  they  are  absolutely  instru- 
mental in  character.  Whereas  Gluck  sought, 
above  all  things,  to  make  the  music  reflect  the 
spirit  and  letter  of  the  poem,  Haydn  was  habitu- 
ally as  reckless  as  any  composer  of  fashionable 
Italian  operas,  in  using  his  text  merely  as  a  peg 
to  hang  his  tunes  on. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  the  songs  he  wrote  with 
piano-forte  accompaniment*  are  without  all 
claims  to  consideration.  His  Liebes  Made/ten, 
/tor  mir  zu  is  as  graceful  and  pretty  as  a  folk- 
song, somewhat  suggestive  of  Schubert's  Heide- 
roslein.  In  the  two  introductory  bars  to  Lachet 
nicht,  Mddchen  there  is  also,  perhaps,  a  slight 

*No.  1,351  of  the  Edition  Peters  is  a  collection  of  thirty-four 
Haydn  Lieder. 

24 


Haydn 

foreshadowing  of  Schubert ;  while  An  die  Freund- 
schaft  is  a  pleasing  little  song  in  the  folk  style, 
of  the  religious  variety.  In  O  siisser  Ton  the  ac- 
companiment has  in  part  the  genuine  character 
of  the  modern  German  Lied,  with  splendid  har- 
monies in  the  three  bars  preceding  the  words 
"  In  Echo's  Kluft."  Interesting  harmonies  are 
also  to  be  found  in  Stets  barg  die  Liebe  sich,  in 
which  the  music  that  goes  with  the  words  "Sie 
glich  der  Duldung"  again  foreshadow  Schu- 
bert. In  Der  Umherirrende  there  are  a  few  bars 
("  Unken  wehklagen  "  and  "  Thai  verdoppelt 
das  Grausen  ")  of  genuine  characterization  in 
music  of  the  dismal  suggestiveness  of  the  words 
("  where  tree-toads  with  their  plaintive  notes, 
and  the  hooting  owls  increase  the  weirdness  of 
the  lonely  vale  "). 

The  best  by  far,  and  the  most  famous  of 
Haydn's  songs  is  his  patriotic  hymn  Gott  er- 
halte  Franz  den  Kaiser  (God  save  our  Emperor 
Francis). 

Apart  from  this  song  and  the  details  al- 
ready noted  in  a  few  others,  there  is  little 
to  commend  in  Haydn's  productions  in  this 
line.  Ein  Kleines  Haus  and  Antwort  auf  die 
Frage  eines  Mddchens  are  not  bad  as  instrumen- 
tal pieces,  but  as  Lieder  they  do  not  pass  muster. 
His  English  Sailor  s  Song  (Matrosenlied)  has  so 
little  of  a  specific  marine  character  that  it  might 

25 


German  Song-Writers  Before  Schubert 

as  well  be  sung  to  "  Mary  Had  a  Little  Lamb." 
Modern  taste  requires  more  spice  in  music,  and 
to-day  even  an  inferior  cook  would  understand 
that  he  must  put  more  salt  into  a  sailor's  song. 
To  realize  vividly  how  fastidious  we  have  be- 
come, as  compared  with  the  music-lovers  of  a 
century  ago,  the  reader  may  compare  Haydn's 
placid,  shallow,  and  frigid  First  Kiss  (Der  erste 
Kuss)  with  the  passionate  ecstasy  of  Chopin's 
My  Delights. 

MOZART 

Unlike  Haydn,  Mozart  was  specifically  a 
composer  for  the  voice.  When  he  was  only 
fourteen  years  old  his  opera  Mitridate  was  pro- 
duced in  Milan  and  repeated  twenty  times.  All 
but  two  of  his  operas  were  written  to  Italian 
librettos,  and  it  is  not  an  idle  boast  of  the  Ger- 
mans that  their  Mozart's  Don  Giovanni  is  the 
best  of  all  Italian  operas.  No  Italian  com- 
poser, either  of  the  old  Neapolitan  school  or 
among  those  of  the  nineteenth  century — Ros- 
sini, Donizetti,  Bellini — was  a  greater  master 
than  Mozart  of  the  bel  canto  or  beautiful  song  ; 
either  in  the  broad,  expressive  cantabile  or  in 
the  fioriture  (vocal  embroideries). 

All  the  more  surprising  is  it  that  Mozart 
did  hardly  anything  to  help  along  the  Lied. 

26 


Mozart 

Among  his  three  dozen  or  more  songs,*  there 
are  not  even  as  many  as  among  Haydn's  that 
present  any  points  of  interest.  In  looking 
through  my  collection  I  found  only  five  that  I 
would  care  to  hear  again  :  the  cradle  song, 
Schlafe  mein  Prinzchen,  Set  du  mein  Trost,  Das 
Lied  der  Trennung,  Das  Veilchen,  and  Ich  wurd* 
auf  meinem  Pfad  ;  and  of  these  only  Das  Veilchen 
( The  Violet]  ranks  with  the  songs  that  live  apart 
from  the  fame  of  their  makers.  The  others  in 
this  collection  would  not  be  reprinted  to-day, 
were  it  not  for  Mozart's  name  on  the  title-page. 
Some  of  them  are  almost  incredibly  weak,  from 
every  point  of  view  ;  in  many  of  them  the  text 
is  maltreated  as  to  accentuation,  and  its  emo- 
tional import  is  not  reflected  in  the  melody ; 
while  others  are  marred  by  pompous  operatic 
phraseology. 

The  Violet  is  free  from  these  blemishes.  It  is 
charming  in  melody  ;  simple,  but  expressive,  in 
its  harmonies.  Here,  for  once,  Mozart  conde- 
scended to  give  us  his  best,  inspired  as  he  must 
have  been  by  Goethe's  exquisitely  pathetic 
poem  about  the  modest  violet  which,  when  the 
lovely  maiden  coming  across  the  meadow  does 


*  The  exact  number  is  uncertain.  Some  songs  are  incorrectly 
attributed  to  Mozart ;  while  others,  perhaps  by  him,  bear  the 
names  of  other  writers. 

27 


German  Song- Writers  Before  Schubert 

not — as  it  had  hoped — stoop  to  pick  it  to  adorn 
her  bosom,  yet  dies  happy  because  it  is  her  foot 
that  crushes  out  its  life. 

The  time  for  the  musical  Lied  had,  however, 
not  yet  come.  Even  Mozart  gave  the  modest 
violet  only  a  passing-  thought ;  for  the  rest,  he 
was,  like  the  world  in  general,  interested  chiefly 
in  musical  sunflowers.  The  symphony,  the 
sonata,  the  opera  absorbed  the  attention  of  the 
musical  world  ;  to  write  long-drawn-out  arias 
was  the  ambition  of  the  composers,  to  sing  them 
the  desire  of  the  vocalists.  The  Jumbomania 
had  not  yet  subsided.  Mozart,  like  Bach,  Han- 
del, and  Haydn,  wrote  many  melodies  that 
would  have  made  excellent  songs;  but  he  pre- 
ferred to  work  them  up  as  operatic  arias,  or  as 
the  slow  movements  in  his  symphonies  and 
quartets.  Such  gems  were  not  to  be  wasted  on 
a  mere  Cinderella  like  the  Lied. 

BEETHOVEN 

In  Beethoven  we  still  find  this  disposition  to 
treat  the  Lied  as  a  mere  bagatelle,  unworthy  of 
a  composer's  best  thoughts  and  efforts.  In- 
deed, he  represents  the  climax  of  the  tendency 
toward  big  things.  Not  only  was  the  sonata, 
the  symphony  in  four  movements,  his  special 
sphere,  but  he  took  particular  delight  in  en- 

28 


Beethoven 

larging  the  several  movements.  His  Eroica 
is  twice  as  long  as  any  symphony  preceding  it. 
From  such  a  man  we  must  not  expect  much 
sympathy  for  the  short  Lied ;  and  we  are  not 
surprised  to  hear  that  he  remarked  to  Roch- 
litz :  "  Songs  I  do  not  like  to  write." 

Beethoven's  indifference  to  the  Lied  is,  how- 
ever, less  remarkable  than  Mozart's,  because  he 
was  not,  like  Mozart,  a  born  composer  for  the 
voice ;  but  rather,  like  Haydn,  an  instrumental 
specialist.  The  list  of  his  works  into  which 
the  voice  enters  is  insignificant  compared  with 
his  compositions  for  instruments ;  and  although 
one  of  his  most  striking  innovations  was  the 
introduction  of  vocal  solos,  quartets,  and  cho- 
ruses into  his  last  symphony  he  did  not,  like 
Haydn,  learn  in  his  later  years  to  treat  the 
voice  in  a  more  vocal  manner. 

In  view  of  Beethoven's  declaration  that  he 
did  not  like  to  compose  songs,  it  is  surprising 
to  find  nevertheless  that  complete  collections 
of  his  Lieder  contain  more  than  sixty  numbers. 
At  least  two-thirds  of  these  are  utterly  un- 
worthy of  their  composer.  In  going  over  my 
volume,  a  few  days  ago,  with  pencil  behind  my 
ear,  I  found  occasion  to  mark  forty-five  of 
them  as  "poor,"  "childish,"  "empty,"  "medio- 
cre:" namely,  numbers  4,  8,  9,  10,  n,  13,  14, 
1 6,  17,  1 8,  19,  21-25,  30.  32-39.  40,  41,  45-49, 
29 


German  Song-Writers  Before  Schubert 

50-59,  60,  62,  63  in  the  Breitkopf  &  Hartel 
edition.  Fifteen  I  marked  "  fair  "  or  "  not  bad," 
while  only  three  have  the  word  "good"  at- 
tached to  them.  Judgment  and  taste  differ,  of 
course ;  I  can  only  speak  for  myself.  The  three 
I  have  marked  "  good "  are  the  only  ones  I 
should  care  to  have  put  on  a  program  for 
my  own  entertainment.  They  are  Adelaide, 
Die  Ehre  Gottes  aus  der  Natur,  and  In  questa 
tomba. 

Adelaide  was  composed  when  Beethoven  was 
only  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and  there  are 
good  reasons  for  holding  that  in  the  later  years 
of  his  life  he  had  no  special  liking  for  it.  There 
were  moments  when  he  felt  inclined  to  destroy 
— could  he  have  done  so — some  of  his  early 
compositions,  including  Adelaide  and  the  Septet ; 
but  that  was  doubtless  due  largely  to  the  im- 
pression that  those  works  had  an  undue  share 
of  popularity  as  compared  with  better  things  of 
his  that  were  not  sufficiently  known  and  appre- 
ciated at  the  time.  He  cannot  have  been  so 
lacking  in  self-judgment  as  not  to  know  that 
Adelaide  was  far  superior  to  most  of  his  songs; 
and  he  must  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the 
poem  when  he  set  it  to  music,  for  he  wrote  to 
its  author,  Matthison,  that  he  considered  it 
"  heavenly." 

Structurally  Adelaide  is  not  a  model  Lied, 
30 


Beethoven 

being  rather  a  solo  cantata  in  the  old  Italian 
sense  of  the  word.  To  music-lovers,  however 
(as  distinguished  from  professionals),  the  form 
of  a  song  is  a  matter  of  subordinate  importance. 
The  vast  majority  of  them  have  no  more 
thought  of  analyzing  the  form  of  a  piece  of 
music  than  they  have  of  parsing  a  poem  they 
like  or  of  dissecting  a  flower  they  admire,  after 
the  manner  of  a  botanist.  They  ask  merely,  "  Is 
the  melody  fresh  and  pleasing,  the  rhythm  stir- 
ring, the  harmony  varied  and  interesting?" 
and  if  these  questions  can  be  answered  in  the 
affirmative  they  take  the  song  to  heart,  even 
though  it  be  not  symmetrical  in  form.  From 
this  point  of  view  Adelaide  is  a  good  song. 
Partly,  perhaps,  because  it  is  a  sort  of  enlarged 
"lyric  scene"  rather  than  a  Lied,  he  did  not 
grudge  it  some  of  the  original  melodic  ideas  of 
which  he  was  so  prolific  in  his  instrumental 
works,  and  took  pains  to  elaborate  the  accom- 
paniment in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
text,  introducing  descriptive  details  and  atmos- 
phere. 

Die  Ehre  Gottes  aus  der  Natur  is  one  of  a 
group  of  religious  songs  of  a  choral-like  char- 
acter, foreshadowing  some  of  Franz's  Lieder, 
while  In  questa  tomba  oscura  (In  this  dark  tomb} 
is  known  to  concert-goers  as  a  sombre  setting 
of  a  sombre  text — a  disappointed  lover's  bitter 

31 


German  Song- Writers  Before  Schubert 

cry  for  the  rest  which  the  grave  alone  can 
bring  him. 

In  others  of  his  songs  Beethoven  was  less 
successful  than  here  in  creating  a  musical  at- 
mosphere in  harmony  with  the  mood  of  the 
poem — in  Wonne  der  Wehmnth,  for  instance,  or 
in  the  Liebes-Klage.  For  the  expression  of  hu- 
mor he  shows  still  less  aptitude.  In  Urian's 
Reise  um  die  Welt  (Urians  trip  around  the  world} 
the  only  comic  thing,  to  my  mind,  is  the  repe- 
tition, no  less  than  fourteen  times,  of  Bee- 
thoven's commonplace  twelve  bars  of  music. 
Again,  what  fun  there  is  in  The  Kiss  ("  Ich  war 
bei  Chloen  ganz  allein  ")  is  entirely  in  the  text ; 
nor  does  the  music  of  Beethoven's  setting  of 
the  flea  song  from  Goethe's  Faust  ("  Es  war 
einmal  ein  Konig")  reflect  the  spirit  of  the 
poem. 

Nothing,  indeed,  proves  more  conclusively 
the  purely  instrumental  character  of  Beetho- 
ven's genius  than  his  failure  to  be  inspired  by 
Goethe's  poems,  highly  though  he  esteemed 
them.  Herein  he  differed  from  Mozart,  as  we 
have  seen.  From  Haydn  he  differed  in  this, 
among  other  things,  that  patriotism  did  not 
help  him  to  write  anything  even  remotely 
comparable  to  Gott  erhalte  Franz  den  Kaiser. 
His  Kriegslied  der  Oesterreicher  (War-song  of 
the  Austrian*),  composed  in  the  same  year  as 

32 


Beethoven 

Haydn's  national  anthem,  is  extraordinarily 
weak — almost  childish,  though  he  was  twenty- 
seven  when  he  wrote  it.  Even  love — and  he 
was  often  in  love — did  not  teach  him  to  write 
immortal  songs,  though  the  majority  of  his 
songs  belong  to  the  erotic  genre. 

The  fifteen  songs  which  I  have  marked  as 
having  some  merit,  but  not  enough  to  enable 
them  to  rank  among  the  gems  of  German  song, 
are  An  die  Hoffnung,  Gott  deine  Gute,  Vom  Tode, 
Gottes  Mac/it,  Mailied,  Marmotte,  Gretefs  War- 
ming, L'amante  impaziente,  Lebens-Genuss,  Wonne 
der  Wehmuth,  Sehnsucht,  Das  Gliick  der  Freund- 
schaft,  Opferlied,  Der  Wachtelschlag,  A  Is  die 
Gelicbte  sick  trennen  ivollte.  In  several  of  these 
the  excellence  lies  chiefly  in  some  interesting 
detail  of  the  accompaniment;  and  it  may  be 
said  in  general  that  Beethoven's  direct  contri- 
butions to  the  development  of  the  Lied  lie  al- 
most entirely  in  this  direction.  I  have  been 
particularly  interested  in  finding  a  few  songs  in 
which  the  accompaniment  foreshadows  Schu- 
bert. One  of  these  is  Sehnsucht,  especially  at 
the  words  "mbcht  icJi  hinuber,  da  mocJit  ich 
ivohl  /««."  The  fifth  and  sixth  bars  of  Vom 
Tode,  and  more  strikingly  Als  die  Gcliebte  sick 
trennen  wollte,  suggest  details  of  Schubert's  The 
Wanderer.  Beethoven's  Marmotte  also  makes 
one  think  of  Schubert's  Leiermann  (Hurdy-gurdy 

33 


German  Song-Writers  Before  Schubert 

man).  The  subject  is  somewhat  similar,  though 
Beethoven's  text  is  a  comic  mixture  of  German 
and  French : 

Ich  komme  schon  durch  manches  Land 

Avec  que  la  marmotte 
Und  immer  was  zu  essen  fand 

Avec  que  la  marmotte* 
(the  last  line  being  repeated  five  times) ; 

whereas  Schubert's  Leiermann  moves  us  to 
tears  not  only  because  "  his  tray  remains  al- 
ways empty,"  but  because  of  the  heart-rend- 
ing pathos  of  the  exquisite  music,  which  is  in- 
finitely superior  to  Beethoven's. 

REICHARDT,  ZELTER,  AND  ZUMSTEEG 

While  the  great  German  and  Austrian  mas- 
ters from  Handel,  Bach,  and  Gluck  to  Haydn, 
Mozart,  and  Beethoven  thus  allowed  their  at- 
tention to  be  almost  entirely  absorbed  by  works 
of  larger  dimensions,  there  arose  a  class  of 
minor  composers  who  did  not  scorn  the  Lied, 
but  carefully  cultivated  it.  Unfortunately  they 
were  only  men  of  talent,  while  genius  was  re- 
quired to  raise  the  Lied  to  the  same  rank  as 
the  opera,  the  sonata,  and  the  symphony.  They 

*"  I  have  wandered  through  many  a  land  with  my  marmot  and 
have  always  got  something  to  eat." 

34 


Reichardt,  Zelter,  and  Zumsteeg 

helped  to  create  what  the  Germans  call  the 
volksthiimliche  Lied,  which  consciously  aims  at 
the  simplicity  of  the  folk-song  while  not  en- 
tirely disdaining  the  acquisitions  of  art-music 
in  the  accompaniments.  Of  these  composers 
the  most  important  were  Schulz  (1747-1800), 
Reichardt  (1752-1814),  Zelter  (1758-1832)  and 
Zumsteeg  (1760-1802).  Schulz  held  that  a  mel- 
ody should  tit  the  words  as  a  well-made  dress 
fits  the  body — as  is  the  case  in  the  best  folk- 
songs— and  he  was  lucky  in  being  able  to  avail 
himself  of  the  verses  of  some  good  poets,  such 
as  Burger  and  Voss. 

Reichardt  also  took  the  folk-song  as  his  model, 
insisting  that  song-composers  should  return  to 
it  as  the  source  of  the  Lied.  He  was  the  first 
who  made  a  specialty  of  Goethe's  lyrics,  of 
which  he  set  to  music  no  fewer  than  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five.  Goethe  himself  had  been  much 
influenced  by  the  folk-poems,  the  charms  of 
which  had  been  unveiled  to  him  by  Herder's  col- 
lections. Reichardt  succeeded  with  his  music 
in  heightening  the  charm  of  the  more  gay  and 
superficial  poems  of  Goethe  ;  but  for  the  expres- 
sion of  the  deeper  emotions  his  art  did  not  suffice. 
With  all  his  merits,  Reichardt  cannot  be  classed 
among  the  great  song-writers.  His  intentions 
and  principles  were  excellent,  but  his  melodic 
faculty  was  weak ;  he  was  not  an  inspired  com- 

35 


German  Song- Writers  Before  Schubert 

poser.  He  lacked  ideas ;  and  no  music,  be  it  a 
song  or  a  symphony,  can  become  immortal  un- 
less it  embodies  original  ideas. 

Zelter  was,  like  Reichardt,  a  personal  friend 
of  Goethe.  The  cordiality  of  their  relations  is 
attested  by  the  number  of  letters  exchanged 
between  them,  making  a  collection  of  six 
printed  volumes.  Goethe  confessed  that  some 
of  Zelter's  settings  of  his  poems  had  an  "  inde- 
scribable charm  "  for  him,  and  he  wrote  to  the 
composer:  "  I  may  say  that  your  melodies  have 
given  birth  to  many  a  poem  in  my  mind." 
Goethe's  admiration,  however,  counts  for  little ; 
that  he  had  no  real  appreciation  of  good  music 
is  proved  by  this  fact  alone,  that  he  preferred 
the  commonplace  settings  of  his  poems  by  Zel- 
ter and  Reichardt,  not  only  to  Beethoven's,  but 
even  to  Schubert's.  It  is,  indeed,  likely  that 
the  chief  reason  why  Goethe  liked  Zelter's 
settings  of  his  poems  was  that  they  were  sim- 
ple and  did  not  distract  attention  from  his 
poems;  whereas  in  Schubert  the  poem  becomes 
in  importance  secondary  to  the  music.  Zelter's 
merits  lay  in  his  choice  of  good  poems  and  in 
carefully  fitting  together  the  melodic  and  the 
word  accents.  But  he  had  no  inspiration, 
lacked  melodic  and  harmonic  ideas,  and,  there- 
fore, was  not  able  to  write  any  songs  that  have 
more  than  a  historic  interest  to  posterity. 

36 


Spohr,  Marschner,  and  Weber 

Zumsteeg  won  the  admiration  of  a  much 
better  judge  of  music  than  Goethe,  namely,  of 
Schubert  himself.  Spaun  relates  in  his  remi- 
niscences that  Schubert  as  a  boy  was  deeply 
affected  by  these  songs  and  "  declared  he  could 
revel  in  them  day  after  day."  He  used  Zum- 
steeg as  a  model  when  he  wrote  his  first  songs  ; 
but  soon  went  far  beyond  him,  because  he  had 
genius  and  Zumsteeg  only  talent.  Zumsteeg 
ranks  as  the  earliest  ballad  composer  of  distinc- 
tion ;  and  Schubert  followed  him,  for  awhile,  in 
this  direction. 

SPOHR,   MARSCHNER,   AND  WEBER 

The  three  masters  grouped  together  in  this 
section  were  born  shortly  before  Schubert,  and 
all  but  one  (Weber)  survived  him.  They  oc- 
cupy a  much  higher  rank  in  the  world  of  music 
than  the  men  considered  in  the  preceding  sec- 
tion; yet  they,  too,  though  they  might  have 
profited  by  Schubert's  example,  did  not  con- 
tribute anything  of  permanent  value  to  the 
world's  treasures  of  songs.  They  were  opera 
composers  who,  like  Mozart,  reserved  their  best 
ideas  for  their  big  stage  works,  their  Lieder  be- 
ing little  more  than  chips  from  their  workshops. 
Ludwig  Spohr  (1784-1859)  wrote  eleven  operas, 
one  of  which,  Faust,  held  the  stage  till  Gounod's 

37 


German  Song-Writers  Before  Schubert 

masterwork  displaced  it;  his  Jessonda  is  still 
sung  in  Germany  occasionally ;  whereas  his 
songs,  of  which  about  a  dozen  books  of  half-a- 
dozen  each  were  issued,  are  not  reprinted  in 
the  popular  editions  of  our  time — which  shows 
that  they  have  become  obsolete. 

Heinrich  Marschner  (1795-1861)  published 
about  twenty  sets  of  songs  and  half  as  many 
sets  of  male  choruses ;  but  these,  too,  are  obso- 
lete, and  he  is  remembered  chiefly  as  a  connect- 
ing link  between  Weber  and  Wagner.  His  best 
opera,  Hans  Heiling,  which  still  enjoys  about 
fifty  performances  a  year  in  Germany,  unmis- 
takably influenced  Wagner's  Flying  Dutchman. 

Carl  Maria  von  Weber  (1786-1826)  wrote  ten 
operas  and  ninety  Lieder,  ballads,  and  romances 
for  one  or  two  voices,  besides  a  number  of  part- 
songs  and  cantatas.  At  the  suggestion  of  Vog- 
ler  he  studied  the  songs  of  the  people,  and  this, 
in  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Spitta,*  "  enabled  him  to 
hit  off  the  characteristic  tone  of  the  Volkslied 
as  nobody  had  done  before  him."  This  may  be 
true,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  among 
these  songs  one  that  equals  the  best  real  folk- 

*  Spitta's  article  on  Weber  in  Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  421-423,  gives  the  best  and  most  detailed 
account  of  Weber's  Lieder  that  I  know  of.  See,  also,  Reismann, 
Gesch.  d,  deutschen  Liedes,  pp.  166  and  216,  and  R.  Wagner,  Ge- 
tammelte  Schriften,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  320-324. 

38 


Spohr,  Marschner,  and  Weber 

songs,  or  the  best  of  the  melodies  in  the  folk 
style  which  Weber  created  for  his  operas.  He 
is,  therefore,  himself  to  blame  for  the  compara- 
tive neglect  which  has  overtaken  his  Lieder. 
Max  Maria  von  Weber  declares,  in  the  biogra- 
phy of  his  father  (vol.  i.,  p.  189),  that  these  songs 
will  be  rescued  from  their  temporary  oblivion 
when  the  world  tires  of  the  overladen  and  mor- 
bid products  of  modern  composers  and  returns 
to  the  simplicity  and  greatness  of  true  art.  But 
this  is  nonsense.  Weber's  songs,  on  the  whole, 
are  less  dry  and  trivial  than  those  of  Gluck, 
Haydn,  Mozart,  and  Beethoven ;  not  a  few  in- 
teresting details  in  them  might  be  pointed  out 
(as  in  the  Liebesgruss  aus  der  Feme,  which  recalls 
Euryanthe) ;  but  they  are  not  songs  to  be  placed 
on  the  same  shelf  with  those  of  Schubert,  Schu- 
mann, Franz,  and  other  modern  masters.  The 
fact  that  many  of  them  were  written  with  guitar 
accompaniment  is  significant.* 

*  That  Weber's  songs,  while  not  as  popular  as  formerly,  have 
not  become  obsolete  in  Germany,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the 
best  of  them  are  still  printed  in  the  popular  editions  of  Peters, 
Litolff,  and  Breitkopf  &  Hartel.  A  complete  edition,  in  two 
volumes,  is  issued  by  Schlesinger  of  Berlin.  The  patriotic  or 
military  songs,  like  the  Schwertlied,  set  to  KSrner's  last  poem,  are 
on  the  whole  the  most  successful.  The  Wiegenlied  foreshadows 
Mendelssohn. 


39 


Ill 

Schubert 

HAD  it  not  been  for  a  lucky  occurrence — 
the  marriage  of  a  peasant's  son,  a  hum- 
ble Austrian  schoolmaster  named  Franz  Schu- 
bert, to  a  young  Silesian  woman  named  Eliza- 
beth Fitz,  who  was  in  domestic  service  in  Vienna 
as  a  cook  (like  Beethoven's  mother) — it  is  prob- 
able that  the  art-song  would  have  languished 
for  many  more  years — possibly  to  our  own  day 
— in  the  subordinate  position  in  which  the  vari- 
ous composers,  discussed  in  the  preceding  pages, 
had  left  it.  The  same  result  would  have  fol- 
lowed if  this  union  had  not  proved  remarkably 
prolific  ;  for  Franz  Peter  Schubert  was  the  thir- 
teenth ot  fourteen  children  born  to  his  mother. 
The  date  of  his  birth  was  January  31,  1797,  and 
he  was  the  only  one  of  the  famous  Viennese 
school  of  composers  (including  Haydn,  Mozart, 
Beethoven)  who  was  born  in  Vienna.  His 
mother  died  when  he  was  fifteen,  and  his  father 
took  another  wife,  by  whom  he  had  five  more 
children,  three  of  whom  grew  up ;  while  of  the 

40 


Schubert 

fourteen  by  the  first  marriage  five  survived, 
leaving  eight  mouths  to  provide  for,  besides  the 
father  and  mother. 

To  the  present  day  schoolmasters  are  shame- 
fully underpaid  in  most  European  countries, 
and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  Franz  Schubert's 
large  family  did  not  revel  in  wealth,  his  an- 
nual income  being,  in  fact,  only  $175  !  From  the 
cradle  to  the  grave  poverty  was  the  companion 
of  the  greatest  of  all  song-writers ;  but  though 
little  Franz  often  went  hungry  and  cold,  this 
did  not  prevent  his  musical  genius  from  bud- 
ding at  an  early  age.  Where  he  got  that  gilt 
is  as  great  a  mystery  as  the  origin  of  genius  is 
in  general.  Nothing  is  said  of  his  mother  hav- 
ing been  musical,  and  his  father's  accomplish- 
ments in  this  line  cannot  have  been  remarkable, 
inasmuch  as,  in  playing  the  violoncello  parts  in 
quartets  at  home  he  sometimes  made  mistakes, 
unconsciously  and  repeatedly,  until  little  Franz, 
who  had  the  viola  part,  suggested  timidly  to 
his  "  Herr  Vater"  that  "something  must  be 
wrong." 

As  a  boy  of  eleven  Schubert  sang  soprano 
solos  and  played  the  violin  in  the  parish  choir, 
and  four  months  before  he  reached  his  twelfth 
year  he  entered  the  Convict,  or  Imperial  school, 
in  which  boys  were  trained  for  the  Court- 
chapel.  Here  he  remained  five  years  and  re- 

41 


Schubert 

ceived  many  of  the  musical  impressions  which 
helped  to  form  his  taste.  The  boys  had  formed 
a  small  orchestra,  which  he  joined  as  one  of  the 
violinists.  His  playing  attracted  attention  at 
once,  and  before  he  was  fourteen  years  old  he 
was  occasionally  called  upon  to  take  the  place 
of  the  absent  conductor.  Apart  from  these 
hours  of  music,  life  in  the  Convict  was  not  par- 
ticularly pleasant.  The  hungry  boys  never  had 
enough  to  eat,  and  the  room  in  which  they  had 
to  practise  was  cruelly  cold  in  winter.  "  You 
know  from  experience,"  Franz  wrote  to  his 
brother  in  1812,  "that  a  fellow  would  like  to 
eat  a  roll  or  an  apple  or  two,  once  in  a  while ; 
all  the  more  if,  after  a  poor  dinner,  he  has  to 
wait  eight  and  a  half  hours  for  a  wretched  sup- 
per." He  then  begs  for  an  occasional  penny, 
and  signs  himself  "  your  loving,  poor,  hopeful, 
and  once  more  poor  brother  Franz." 

Music-paper  was  another  thing  for  which 
poor  Franz  would  have  had  to  go  hungry,  had 
it  not  been  for  the  kind  aid  of  a  friend.  Before 
leaving  home  Franz  had  already  written  songs 
and  instrumental  pieces,  which,  however,  he 
destroyed  as  being  mere  experiments.  In  the 
Convict  he  blushingly  confessed  to  one  of  the 
older  boys,  named  Spaun,  that  he  had  already 
composed  a  good  deal,  and  that  he  would  like 
to  write  music  every  day  if  he  could  afford  to 

42 


Schubert 

buy  the  paper.  Spaun  took  pity  on  him  and 
supplied  him  with  what  he  needed.  From  that 
time  on  his  demands  in  this  direction  were 
enormous.  In  the  eighteen  years  from  1810  to 
1828  he  wrote  at  least  1,200  compositions,  in  all 
departments  of  music.* 

Shortly  before  Schubert  reached  his  seven- 
teenth year  his  voice  changed,  and  he  left  the 
Convict  to  return  to  his  father's  house.  His 
brother  Ferdinand  declared  that  Franz  was 
three  times  summoned  to  enlist  in  the  army, 

*  The  list  of  Schubert's  compositions  given  by  the  late  Sir 
George  Grove  in  his  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians  (vol.  Hi., 
PP-  37I-38i)  is  now  superseded  by  the  table  of  contents  of  the 
complete  edition  of  Schubert's  works  issued  by  Breitkopf  &  Hartel. 
Grove's  article  on  Schubert,  which  takes  up  sixty-two  pages  (double 
columns)  of  his  Dictionary,  remains,  however,  the  most  complete 
biography  now  in  existence  in  any  language,  and  will  probably 
remain  so  until  the  appearance  of  the  great  work  on  which  Max 
Friedlander  is  engaged,  and  some  of  the  material  for  which  has 
been  "printed  as  manuscript,"  as  the  Germans  say.  The  scant 
sources  of  information  on  which  any  biography  of  Schubert  must 
be  based  are  given  by  Grove  (p.  370)  and  Friedlander,  and  need 
not  be  repeated  here.  To  their  lists  should,  however,  be  added 
an  excellent  little  biography  by  Niggli,  in  the  Reclam  edition. 
I  may  also  state  that  Spaun's  Erinnerungen,  which  were  ac- 
cessible to  Grove,  Kreissle,  and  Niggli  only  in  manuscript,  are 
now  printed  in  La  Mara's  Classisches  und  Romantisches  aus  der 
Tonwelt.  An  admirably  written  short  sketch  of  Schubert  by 
John  Fiske  is  incorporated  in  Professor  Paine's  Famous  Composers 
and  Their  Works;  another  one,  in  Elson's  History  of  German 
Song. 

43 


Schubert 

and  that  it  was  to  escape  military  service  that 
he  decided  to  become  a  teacher  in  his  father's 
school.  Others  have  conjectured  that  it  was 
his  father  who  urged  him  to  become  a  teacher 
rather  than  a  professional  musician.  However 
that  may  be,  it  is  obvious  that  a  person  who,  as 
early  as  the  age  of  eleven,  was  referred  to  as 
"  a  small  boy  in  spectacles,"  would  not  have 
made  a  good  soldier ;  and  it  certainly  would 
have  been  a  crime  to  expose  such  a  genius  to 
bullets.  So,  for  three  years,  young  Franz 
drilled  the  alphabet  into  the  heads  of  boys  and 
girls ;  many  of  them  no  doubt  dense  enough,  for 
he  often  lost  his  patience  and  did  not  hesitate, 
on  occasion,  to  box  a  dunce's  ears. 

It  seems  almost  incredible  that  amid  this  ex- 
hausting drudgery,  which  would  have  used 
up  all  the  energy  of  an  ordinary  individual, 
Schubert  should  have  found  time  and  incli- 
nation to  compose  a  vast  amount  of  music. 
In  the  year  1815  he  wrote  as  many  as  one 
hundred  and  thirty-seven  songs,  besides  a  large 
number  of  instrumental  works  and  several 
operettas.  The  songs  included  the  immortal 
Erlking,  Heidenroslcin,  ScJidfers  Klagelied  and 
Rastlose  Liebe.  That  a  mind  capable  of  creating 
such  works  of  genius  should  have  at  last  found 
the  drudgery  of  teaching  reading  and  writing 
insupportable,  is  not  strange.  In  the  spring  of 

44 


Schubert 

1816  we  accordingly  find  him  applying  for  the 
position  of  teacher  in  a  new  music  school  at 
Laibach,  but  he  did  not  get  it.  The  same  re- 
sult attended  several  other  attempts  to  secure 
positions,  which  he  made  in  later  years ;  and 
perhaps  it  was  just  as  well  that  he  always 
failed.  He  disliked  teaching  of  any  kind,  and, 
like  most  men  of  genius,  was  unsuited  for  any 
systematic,  practical  work.  He  was,  in  truth,  a 
born  Bohemian ;  and  as  a  Bohemian  he  spent 
the  rest  of  his  short  life  without  any  home  of 
his  own,  but  living  with  his  friends  and  boon 
companions,  some  of  whom  assisted  him,  while 
he,  in  turn,  shared  with  them  his  scant  earnings. 
One  of  these  friends,  a  university  student 
named  Franz  von  Schober,  appeared  on  the 
scene  at  the  most  opportune  time.  Having 
heard  some  of  Schubert's  songs,  he  was  so  de- 
lighted that  he  at  once  took  steps  to  make  his 
acquaintance ;  and  finding  him  overwhelmed 
with  distasteful  school-work,  he  generously  of- 
fered him  one  of  his  rooms  and  otherwise  helped 
him,  so  as  to  enable  him  to  devote  more  of  his 
time  and  energy  to  composition.  For  a  few 
years  (1819-1821)  Schubert  roomed  with  an- 
other friend,  the  poet  Mayrhofer,  returning  later 
to  Schober,  whose  chum  he  remained  during 
the  greater  part  of  his  life.  For  whatever  these 
friends  and  others  may  have  done  for  him,  he 

45 


Schubert 

has  repaid  them  a  hundredfold  by  preserving 
for  all  time  their  names,  and,  in  the  case  of 
Mayrhofer  and  others,  a  number  of  poems 
which  would  have  been  consigned  to  oblivion 
long  ago  but  for  the  music  set  to  them  by 
Schubert.  Some  of  them,  indeed,  would  never 
have  been  written  but  for  the  stimulating  influ- 
ence of  the  composer  on  the  poet. 

The  Bohemian  life  which  Schubert  enjoyed 
doubtless  had  its  drawbacks.  His  friends  were, 
like  himself,  mostly  young  bachelors  who,  hav- 
ing no  home,  spent  their  evenings  in  taverns. 
Schubert  liked  a  good  glass  of  wine,  and  he 
was  fond  of  the  society  of  these  young  men. 
Thus  he  was  tempted  to  give  up  to  conviviality 
many  a  night  that  consideration  for  his  health 
should  have  induced  him  to  spend  in  bed. 
There  is  no  evidence,  however,  that  he  was 
wont  to  indulge  to  excess ;  indeed,  we  know 
from  one  of  his  letters  (Kreissle,  p.  320)  that  he 
left  a  "  reading  club  "  when  it  degenerated  into 
a  beer-and-sausage  club.  The  chief  harm  that 
came  to  him  from  his  boon  companions  was 
that  while  some  of  them  were  ready  to  help 
him,  others  made  unscrupulous  use  of  his  liber- 
ality when  he  happened  to  have  a  few  florins, 
and  this  helped  to  keep  his  purse  always  empty. 
In  money  matters  he  was,  like  Wagner,  a  child ; 
squandering  one  moment,  starving  the  next. 


Schubert 

In  the  last  year  of  his  life,  when  his  first  and 
only  concert  had  yielded  him  $160,  he  quite  lost 
his  head,  paying  five  florins  to  hear  Paganini 
and  then  going  again  because  he  wished  to  treat 
his  friend,  Bauernfeld.  This  recklessness  and 
excessive  conviviality  were,  however,  his  only 
faults — faults  which  too  often  go  hand  in  hand 
with  the  artistic  temperament. 

Besides  allowing  him  plenty  of  time  for  com- 
posing, the  unfettered  life  he  led  had  other  ad- 
vantages to  counterbalance  the  drawbacks  men- 
tioned. Musicians  are  apt  to  flock  together  and 
talk  shop  and  scandal  by  the  hour;  but  among 
Schubert's  boon  companions  there  were  only  a 
few  musicians,  the  others  being  officials,  artists, 
and  poets,  whose  varied  conversation  could  not 
fail  to  widen  the  horizon  of  his  thoughts.  He 
was  known  by  the  nickname  of  "  Canevas  "  be- 
cause it  was  his  habit,  whenever  a  stranger  was 
introduced  to  the  circle,  of  asking  "  Kann  er 
was?"  ("Can  he  do  anything?").  Nor  were  these 
meetings  entirely  given  up  to  carousing.  Read- 
ing or  declaiming  was  often  in  order ;  and  many 
of  Schubert's  new  songs  were  sung  for  the  first 
time  on  these  occasions.  And  although  the  in- 
formal club  was  not  a  musical  one,  and  Schu- 
bert was  naturally  of  a  retiring,  timid  disposi- 
tion, nevertheless  he  was  the  centre  of  it,  and 
the  meetings  went  by  the  name  of  "  Schuber- 

47 


Schubert 

tiads."  These  Schubertiads  were  sometimes 
held  at  the  residences  of  the  members  or  their 
friends.  Occasionally  the  ladies  were  invited, 
and  there  was  dancing  as  well  as  singing-,  Schu- 
bert sitting  at  the  piano  and  improvising  those 
lovely  valses  and  other  dance-pieces  of  which 
many  were  afterward  written  down.  One  even- 
ing a  policeman  entered  and  commanded  the 
dancing  to  stop  because  it  was  Lent — greatly 
to  the  annoyance  of  Schubert,  who  exclaimed : 
"  They  do  that  just  to  spite  me,  because  they 
know  how  I  love  to  improvise  dance  music." 

Up  to  this  time  Schubert  had  been  compelled 
to  sing  his  own  songs,  and  he  had  only  a  "  com- 
poser's voice."  One  of  his  great  desires  was  to 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  famous  opera 
singer  Johann  Michael  Vogl.  Schober,  who 
knew  him,  accordingly  tried  to  interest  him  in 
Schubert  by  telling  him  in  glowing  words  about 
the  beauty  of  his  friend's  compositions.  Vogl 
answered  that  he  had  often  heard  of  such  prodi- 
gies, but  had  always  been  disappointed  ;  and 
that  he  was  tired  of  music  anyway  and  wished 
to  be  left  alone.  But  Schober  did  not  leave  him 
alone,  and  finally  persuaded  him  to  go  with  him 
to  his  rooms.  Schubert  was  there,  and  after 
an  introduction,  he  sat  at  the  piano  and  played 
while  Vogi  sang  several  of  his  songs.  "  Not 
bad,"  the  tenor  exclaimed  dryly,  after  the  first 

48 


Schubert 

song  (Augenlied}.  Other  songs,  including  Gany- 
med  and  Des  Schafer's  Klage,  seemed  to  please 
him  more ;  but  he  went  home  without  saying 
much  or  promising  to  call  again.  On  going 
out,  however,  he  tapped  the  young  man  on  the 
shoulder  and  exclaimed :  "  There  is  stuff  in 
you,  but  not  enough  of  the  comedian,  the  char- 
latan; you  squander  your  fine  thoughts  with- 
out making  the  most  of  them."  But  the  songs 
haunted  his  memory ;  he  soon  called  again, 
sang  more  of  them,  and  ere  long  found  himself 
one  of  the  most  ardent  admirers  of  this  young 
genius,  whose  music  had  cured  him  of  "  that 
tired  feeling,"  and  awakened  in  him  a  new  in- 
terest in  art. 

Vogl  was  not  free  from  the  faults  of  opera 
singers.  When  he  told  Schubert  at  their  first 
meeting  that  there  was  "not  enough  of  the 
comedian,  the  charlatan  "  in  him,  he  meant  that 
Schubert  did  not  sufficiently  embellish  his 
songs  for  the  sake  of  tickling  the  ears  of  his 
hearers.  He  himself  did  not  hesitate,  in  sing- 
ing these  chaste  songs,  to  hang  operatic  tinsel 
around  them — with  the  best  of  intentions.  Nor 
did  he  hesitate  to  slightly  alter  or  to  transpose 
the  songs.  But  the  statement  made  by  Kreissle 
that  Vogl  influenced  the  style  of  Schubert's 
compositions  is  emphatically  denied  by  Spaun. 
"  No  one,"  he  wrote  in  some  biographic  memo- 

49 


Schubert 

randa  made  for  his  family  in  1864,  "ever  had 
the  slightest  influence  on  his  method  of  compos- 
ing, though  attempts  may  have  been  made.  At 
the  utmost  he  made  concessions  to  the  range  of 
Vogl's  voice,  but  even  that  seldom  and  unwill- 
ingly." In  all  other  respects  Vogl's  influence 
on  Schubert  can  only  have  been  good.  He  was 
a  man  of  general  culture  and  wide  reading,  and 
he  must  have  called  his  friend's  attention  to 
many  a  fine  poem.  In  all  probability,  the  two 
men  had  many  interesting  discussions  on  the 
subject  of  the  relations  of  poetry  and  music. 
Perhaps  the  following  reflection  which  Vogl 
wrote  into  his  diary  is  an  echo  of  these  discus- 
sions: 

"  Nothing  shows  so  plainly  the  need  of  a  good  school  of 
singing  as  Schubert's  songs.  Otherwise,  what  an  enormous 
and  universal  effect  must  have  been  produced  throughout 
the  world,  wherever  the  German  language  is  understood,  by 
these  truly  divine  inspirations,  these  utterances  of  a  musical 
clairvoyance.  How  many  would  have  comprehended,  prob- 
ably for  the  first  time,  the  meaning  of  such  expressions  as 
4  speech  and  poetry  in  music,'  '  words  in  harmony,'  '  ideas 
clothed  in  music,'  etc.,  and  would  have  learned  that  the 
finest  poems  of  our  greatest  poets  may  be  enhanced,  and 
even  transcended,  when  translated  into  musical  language." 

The  French  sneer,  bete  comme  un  tenor,  obvi- 
ously did  not  apply  to  the  man  who  wrote  this, 
and  Schubert  was  lucky  in  having  such  a  rare 

50 


Schubert 

bird  to  sing  his  songs.  Vogl  was  in  great  de- 
mand in  social  circles,  and  he  was  thus  in  a  po- 
sition, which  he  put  to  the  best  use,  of  making 
the  public  at  large  acquainted  with  these  new 
songs.  Schubert  often  accompanied  him  on 
the  piano,  and  we  may  judge  of  the  impression 
on  their  lucky  hearers  from  a  sentence  in  a  letter 
written  by  him  in  1825,  to  his  brother  Ferdi- 
nand :  "  The  manner  in  which  Vogl  sings  and  I 
accompany,  so  that  we  seem  to  be  one  on  such 
occasions,  is  to  these  people  something  new  and 
unheard  of."  In  another  letter  of  the  same  year 
he  writes  to  his  parents  that  after  he  had  played 
a  movement  from  one  of  his  sonatas  some  of 
the  hearers  assured  him  that  under  his  fingers 
the  keys  sang  like  voices ;  "  which,  if  true, 
makes  me  very  glad,"  he  adds  with  character- 
istic modesty. 

From  one  point  of  view  it  was  lucky  for 
Schubert  that  he  was  modest,  for  apart  from 
the  admiration  of  his  friends  there  was  little  in 
his  experiences  to  encourage  vanity.  Spaun  re- 
lates that  whenever  Vogl  or  Schonstein*  sang 

*  Baron  von  Schdnstein  was  another  singer  who  introduced  Schu- 
bert's songs  in  the  higher  social  circles.  To  him  the  Mulltrlieder 
and  other  famous  songs  are  dedicated ;  and  Schubert  wrote  in  one 
of  his  letters :  "I  am  always  delighted  to  hear  Baron  SchSnstein 
sing."  Liszt  heard  him  in  1838,  and  wrote  in  the  Gazette  Afusi- 
cale  that  Schubert's  songs,  as  sung  by  the  baron,  had  often  moved 

51 


Schubert 

Schubert's  Lieder  at  social  gatherings  they  were 
overwhelmed  with  applause  and  thanks;  "  but 
nobody  took  the  least  notice  of  the  modest  musi- 
cian who  had  created  these  splendid  melodies. 
He  was  so  accustomed  to  this  neglect  that  it 
did  not  trouble  him  in  the  least."  It  is,  indeed, 
related  that  on  one  occasion,  to  avoid  the  at- 
tentions of  the  guests,  he  made  his  escape  by  a 
back  stairway.* 

From  another  point  of  view  this  modesty  and 
indifference  to  praise  proved  a  disadvantage. 

Bescheidenheit  ist  eine  Zier, 
Doch  kommt  man  weiter  ohne  ihr, 

as  a  German  humorist  has  remarked.  A  little 
more  pride  and  "  push  "  would  have  been  of 
great  benefit  to  Schubert.  Among  those  who 
took  advantage  of  his  diffidence  and  good  nat- 
ure were  the  publishers.  For  years  they  re- 
fused to  have  anything  to  do  with  his  songs, 
notwithstanding  the  enthusiasm  they  had 

him  to  tears.  He  praised  SchSnstein  for  allowing  himself  to  be 
swayed  by  his  emotions  without  thinking  of  the  public,  and  re- 
ferred to  Schubert  as  "the  most  poetic  musician  that  ever  was." 
But  this  was  ten  years  after  Schubert's  death.  It  was  the  same 
year  that  Schumann  began  to  proclaim  the  genius  of  Schubert  in 
his  musical  journal,  the  Neue  Zeitschrift  fiir  Musik, 

*  Sir  George  Grove  has  truly  said  that  Schubert  "  was  one  o*f  the 
very  few  musicians  who  did  not  behave  as  if  he  thought  himself 
the  greatest  man  in  the  world." 

52 


aroused  in  private  circles;  and  subsequently 
they  pinned  him  down  to  the  lowest  terms,  even 
to  the  last  year  of  his  life.  The  Erlking  was 
composed  in  1818.  Five  years  later  it  was 
offered  to  several  publishers,  who  refused  to 
print  it  even  without  a  royalty.  Some  of  Schu- 
bert's friends  thereupon  advanced  the  necessary 
funds,  the  song  was  printed — the  first  of  his 
compositions  to  get  into  type — and  in  nine 
months  800  copies  of  it  were  sold,  the  publisher, 
Diabelli,  receiving  one-half  of  the  proceeds. 
Eleven  other  songs  were  now  issued  in  rapid 
succession,  and  proved  so  successful  that  the 
shrewd  publisher  offered  800  florins  for  the 
copyright  of  the  twelve,  and  Schubert  was 
unwise  enough  to  accept  that  sum.  One  of 
these  songs  alone,  the  Wanderer,  yielded  to  the 
publishers  27,000  florins  in  the  years  1822-1861. 
Notwithstanding  the  success  of  this  first 
venture,  the  publishers  were  slow  in  assuming 
further  risks.  Kreissle  has  printed  a  number 
of  letters  from  them  which  must  have  caused 
Schubert  many  a  pang  of  disappointment.  One 
publisher  is  too  busy  with  Kalkbrenner's  works; 
another  is  afraid  to  risk  anything  on  the  efforts 
of  a  "young  and  little-known"  composer;  a 
third  offers  to  print  some  of  his  pieces  "  on  com- 
mission ;"  and  all  of  them,  to  the  end  of  his  life, 
profess  to  find  his  terms  too  high.  He  was 

53 


Schubert 

glad  to  accept  from  $15  down  to  $2  for  the 
exclusive  rights  to  a  song,  and  sometimes  much 
less.  Sir  George  Grove  was  told  by  Mr.  Barry 
(who  had  it  from  Lachner  himself)  that  in  the 
last  year  of  his  life  Schubert  sent  Lachner  to 
Hasslinger  with  the  manuscripts  of  six  of  the 
immortal  Winterreise  songs  and  brought  back  a 
florin  apiece  for  them — the  florin  being  worth 
at  that  time  twenty  cents! 

Attempts  made  by  Schubert  during  the  last 
three  years  of  his  life  to  interest  foreign  pub- 
lishers— many  of  whom  have  since  earned  for- 
tunes by  the  sale  of  these  same  songs — proved 
futile.  Three  weeks  before  his  death  he  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Schott's  Sons  regretting 
that  some  of  his  pieces  which  had  been  sent  to 
Paris  had  been  found  "  too  difficult  for  such 
trifles."  These  "  trifles  "  were  the  immortal 
and  epoch-making  Impromptus,  the  progenitors 
of  the  short  pieces  which  are  characteristic  of 
the  romantic  school. 

It  would  be  unfair,  however,  to  put  too  much 
blame  on  the  publishers.  They  were  but  human, 
like  their  companions.  If,  as  Kreissle  remarks, 
the  request,  "  do  not  make  your  compositions 
too  difficult  to  play  or  to  understand,"  runs  like 
red  thread  through  all  the  letters  from  publish- 
ers, there  were  reasons  for  this.  Schubert,  like 
all  great  geniuses,  was  in  advance  of  his  time. 

54 


Schubert 

If  the  Viennese  who  heard  Vogl  or  Schonstein 
sing  and  Schubert  play  had  no  difficulty  in  un- 
derstanding his  music,  it  was  otherwise  with 
the  public  at  large,  which  was  not  thus  favored. 
Even  in  Vienna  the  critics  blundered  in  cen- 
suring Schubert  for  those  very  modulations  and 
other  original  features  which  we  now  admire 
most.*  From  a  practical  point  of  view  Vogl 
was  right  when  he  said  that  Schubert  was  "  not 
enough  of  a  charlatan  and  a  comedian."  He 
wrote  to  please  himself,  not  the  public,  and  he 
had  to  suffer,  in  consequence,  like  other  geniuses 
before  and  after  him.  He  would  sometimes  say 
jokingly  that  the  state  ought  to  support  him, 
in  order  that  he  might  devote  himself  to  com- 
position, free  from  all  care.  Richard  Wagner 
often  said  the  same  thing  about  himself  seri- 
ously ;  and  when  we  consider  what  big  sums 
European  governments  expend  on  the  training 
of  mediocrities  in  music  schools,  as  well  as  on 
the  performance  of  operas  (by  composers  who 
are  usually  allowed  to  starve),  this  demand 
seems  the  most  rational  thing  in  the  world. 
But  how  could  the  government  know  that 

*  One  specimen  must  suffice.  The  critic  of  the  Allgemeine 
Musik  Zeitung  (March  21,  1821)  wrote  regarding  the  Geister- 
chor  that  it  was  ' '  recognized  by  the  public  as  a  farrago  of  mu- 
sical modulations  and  deviations  from  the  rules;  without  sense, 
order,  or  meaning." 

55 


Schubert 

Schubert  was  a  genius  when  the  professional 
musicians  were  so  obtuse  and  indifferent? 
Three  years  before  Schubert's  death,  when  the 
list  of  his  compositions  was  near  one  thousand, 
Schober  wrote : 

•  "  So  the  Mullerlieder,  too,  have  failed  to  make  a  sensation ! 
These  curs  have  no  feelings  or  judgment  of  their  own,  but 
follow  blindly  where  others  lead.  What  you  need  is  a  few 
critics,  with  big  drums,  to  proclaim  your  name  incessantly. 
I  have  known  insignificant  persons  who  were  thrust  into 
fame  by  this  method  ;  why  should  it  not  be  employed  in  the 
case  of  one  like  you,  who  deserve  it  in  the  highest  degree  ?" 

Notwithstanding  his  aversion  to  teaching, 
which  might  have  paid  for  his  bread  and  butter 
(while  diminishing  the  freshness  of  his  compo- 
sitions), Schubert  accepted  an  invitation  in  1818 
to  go  with  the  family  of  Count  Johann  Carl 
Esterhazy  to  his  country  estate  at  Z61esz,  in 
Hungary,  to  teach  his  wife  and  two  daughters. 
He  received  forty  cents  per  lesson,  had  plenty  of 
time  to  compose,  and  his  sojourn  in  the  coun- 
try— which  was  repeated  in  1824 — was  of  benefit 
to  his  art  as  well  as  to  his  health  ;  it  made  him 
acquainted  with  Hungarian  folk-music,  traces 
of  which  occur  in  some  of  his  works  from  this 
time  on. 

As  no  man's  life — particularly  no  musician's 
life — seems  complete  without  at  least  one  love- 
affair,  imaginative  historians,  biographers,  and 

56 


Schubert 

newspaper  writers  have  built  up  an  elaborate 
romance,  in  which  Schubert  is  represented  as 
having  been  deeply  in  love  with  Caroline,  the 
younger  daughter  of  Count  Esterhazy,  and 
heart-broken  because  he  could  not  marry  her. 
The  basis  for  this  romance  is  the  assertion 
made  by  Kreissle  (who  gives  no  authority  for 
it)  that  the  Countess  once  jokingly  reproached 
Schubert  for  not  having  dedicated  anything  to 
her,  whereupon  he  replied :  "  Why  should  I  ? 
Is  not  everything  I  write  dedicated  to  you?" 
But  a  gallant  teacher  might  easily  say  such  a 
thing  to  a  pretty  pupil  without  being  frantic- 
ally in  love  with  her.  The  facts  that  Schubert 
was  a  penniless  music-teacher,  and  that  the 
Esterhazys,  in  their  silly  "  aristocratic  "  pride, 
did  not  invite  him  to  their  table,  but  made  him 
eat  with  the  servants  *  (like  Mozart  in  Salz- 
burg), could  not,  of  course,  have  prevented  him 
from  falling  in  love  with  his  pupil.  But  dur- 
ing the  first  sojourn  at  the  Esterhazy  castle 
Caroline  was  only  twelve  years  old,  and  dur- 
ing the  second,  when  she  was  eighteen,  there 
is  evidence  that,  though  he  may  have  admired 
her,  he  cannot  have  been  violently  in  love  with 

*  See  Friedlander's  Beitrage  zu  finer  Schubert  Biographie  and 
Deutsche  Rundschau,  vol.  23,  No.  5,  for  detailed  evidence  on  all 
these  points. 

57 


Schubert 

her.  In  letters  of  this  period  he  bewails  his 
exile  from  Vienna  and  regrets  that  he  allowed 
himself  a  second  time  to  be  beguiled  to  the 
Hungarian  castle,  where,  he  adds,  "there  is  not 
a  single  person  with  whom  I  can  exchange  a 
sensible  word."  Such  is  not  the  attitude  and 
language  of  a  lover.  There  is  also  a  poem  by 
Schubert's  friend  Bauernfeld,  which  declares 
that,  though  the  composer  was  in  love  with 
the  countess,  he  soon  transferred  his  affection 
to  another : 

Verliebt  war  Schubert ;  der  Schiilerin 
Gait's,  einer  der  jungen  Comptessen, 
Doch  gab  er  sich  einer — ganz  Andern  bin, 
Um — die  Andere  zu  vergessen. 

If  further  proof  were  needed,  it  would  be 
found  in  a  confession  made  by  Schubert  one 
day  to  Hiittenbrenner,  who  asked  him  if  he 
had  ever  been  in  love.  Schubert  replied  that 
he  had  loved  one  girl  dearly,  and  for  three 
years  had  hoped  to  marry  her,  but  had  been 
obliged  to  give  her  up  because  he  was  unable 
to  secure  a  remunerative  position.  This  girl 
was  not  pretty  ;  her  face  was  covered  with 
smallpox  marks,  and  she  was  not  a  countess, 
but  the  daughter  of  a  schoolmaster.  We  know 
from  several  passages  in  Schubert's  letters  that 
he  had  an  eye  for  beauty  in  women ;  but  apart 

58 


Schubert 

from  this  story  of  the  schoolmaster's  daughter 
there  is  no  evidence  that  he  ever  was  really  in 
love  ;  certainly  there  is  no  particle  of  evidence 
for  the  current  belief,  to  which  Rowbotham 
has  given  the  most  extravagant  expression, 
that  "  the  image  of  Caroline  Esterhazy  was 
ever  present  in  his  mind  to  cheer  him  in  his 
lonely  life  and  to  offer  him,  if  not  the  comfort 
of  hope,  at  least  the  consolation  of  delightful 
woe." 

No ;  the  tragedy  of  Schubert's  life  does  not 
lie  in  unrequited  passion ;  it  lies  in  his  early 
death  and  the  thought  that  it  might  have  been 
so  easily  prevented.  All  that  was  needed  to 
keep  him  alive  was  a  little  money  to  enable  him 
to  take  another  vacation.  He  was  a  great  lover 
of  nature,  but,  apart  from  his  two  summers  with 
the  Esterhazys,  there  were  only  three  occasions 
in  his  life  when  he  was  able  to  make  a  trip — to 
Salzburg  and  the  Tyrolean  Mountains  ;  perhaps 
even  these  not  being  at  his  own  expense.  The 
letters  written  on  these  excursions — when  he 
played  and  Vogl  sang  to  the  delight  of  their 
hosts — abound  in  enthusiastic  references  to  the 
fine  scenery,  and  give  frequent  evidence  of  the 
bracing  effects  of  the  country  air  on  his  body 
and  mind.  If  he  could  have  spent  another 
summer  in  these  regions  his  life  might  have 
been  spared.  Several  extant  letters  by  him 

59 


Schubert 

and  others  prove  that  he  had  planned  another 
trip  and  that  nothing  but  lack  of  funds  pre- 
vented him  from  leaving  Vienna  during  the 
unhealthy  months.  He  needed  an  outing  more 
than  ever,  for  he  had  been  suffering  for  some 
time  from  persistent  headaches  and  giddiness. 
Unable  to  leave  the  city,  he  changed  his  resi- 
dence, by  the  doctor's  advice,  to  a  new  house 
occupied  by  his  brother  Ferdinand,  in  a  suburb 
whence  he  would  be  able  to  get  away  more 
easily  from  the  city  on  his  afternoon  walks. 
Probably  the  water  supplied  to  this  house  was 
bad,  for  Schubert  at  once  got  worse.  In  Octo- 
ber he  went  to  Eisenstadt  for  three  days  and 
was  much  better.  Returning  to  the  city  the 
unfavorable  symptoms  returned,  the  doctors 
diagnosed  typhoid  fever,  and  he  died  a  few 
days  later — November  19,  1828 — a  victim  of 
poverty  and  lack  of  appreciation. 

His  last  hours  were  agonizing  to  his  brother. 
Franz  fancied,  in  the  delirium  of  his  fever,  that 
he  had  been  put  in  a  corner  under  the  earth,  and 
he  asked  piteously  :  "  Don't  I  deserve  a  place 
above  ground?"  Ferdinand  assured  him  he 
was  in  his  own  room,  but  Franz  declared  :  "  No, 
that  is  not  so  ;  Beethoven  is  not  here."  A  few 
hours  later  he  clutched  at  the  wall  and  ex- 
claimed :  "  Here,  here  is  my  end."  They  were 
his  last  words.  And  thus  passed  away  a  genius 

60 


Schubert 

of  whom  Grove  has  said  truly  and  pathetically  : 
"  There  never  has  been  one  like  him  and  there 
never  will  be  another." 

His  worldly  possessions  at  the  time  of  his 
death  were  officially  valued  at  about  twelve 
dollars.  They  included  piles  of  musical  manu- 
scripts worth  more  than  their  weight  in  gold  ; 
but  no  one  knew  it,  till  Schumann  came  across 
them  ten  years  later  and  gave  some  of  them  to 
the  astonished  world. 

Money,  money  alone,  was  needed  to  prolong 
the  life  of  Schubert,  the  most  spontaneous  and 
divinely  inspired  of  all  musicians.  An  extra 
drop  of  bitterness  is  added  to  our  sorrow  over 
his  untimely  death  by  the  thought  that  there 
was  a  man  in  Vienna  who  might  have  saved 
him  had  he  known  him  sooner.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  if  Beethoven  had  lived  another 
year  the  authority  of  his  name  and  the  active 
interest  he  would  certainly  have  manifested  in 
Schubert  would  have  brought  the  young  song- 
writer the  fame  and  the  consideration  which 
would  have  enabled  him  to  support  himself. 
But  it  was  one  of  the  links  in  the  long  chain  of 
Schubert's  misfortunes  that,  although  Beetho- 
ven lived  in  the  same  city  thirty  years,  he  did 
not,  until  a  few  months  before  his  death,  dis- 
cover Schubert's  genius. 

When  he  was  already  too  ill  to  continue  com. 

61 


Schubert 

posing,  Schindler  brought  him  about  sixty  of 
Schubert's  songs  by  way  of  diversion  and  with 
the  object  of  making  him  acquainted  with  the 
young  man's  work.  Beethoven  was  amazed 
and  delighted  with  these  songs.  For  several 
days  he  had  them  constantly  in  hand  and  ex- 
claimed repeatedly  :  "  Truly,  Schubert  has  the 
divine  spark."  He  now  was  eager  to  see  also 
the  operas  and  piano-forte  works,  but  his  illness 
prevented  him,  and  he  could  only  express  re- 
grets at  not  having  known  Schubert  sooner. 
It  is  probable  that  his  enthusiastic  praise  stimu- 
lated Schubert,  who  worshipped  him,  to  those 
supreme  efforts  which  enabled  him  to  write  his 
greatest  works  after  this  time  ;  but  it  was  too 
late  to  derive  much  worldly  benefit  from  Beet- 
hoven's recommendation,  for  he  followed  him 
into  the  grave  eighteen  months  later.  Beetho- 
ven was,  as  we  have  seen,  in  his  mind  in  the  de- 
lirium of  his  fever,  not  long  before  the  end,  and 
it  was  his  fervent  wish  that  he  might  be  buried 
near  that  master,  which  wish  was  carried  out 
through  the  self-denial  of  his  brother  Ferdinand, 
who  secured  a  place  for  him  only  three  graves 
removed  from  Beethoven's. 

In  view  of  Schubert's  great  admiration  for 
Beethoven  it  is  remarkable  that  his  genius  was 
so  little  dominated  by  that  master  and  that  he 
manifested  such  striking  originality  in  all  de- 

62 


Schubert 

partments  of  music.  The  method  of  workman- 
ship of  these  two  composers,  also,  was  utterly 
dissimilar.  Beethoven  began,  as  a  rule,  with 
the  germ  of  a  musical  thought,  often  crude  and 
even  commonplace,  which  he  jotted  down  on 
music-paper,  subsequently  altering  it — in  some 
cases  a  dozen  times  or  oftener — till  at  last  it 
assumed  the  finished  form  we  admire  ;  whereas 
Schubert,  as  a  rule,  improvised  his  composi- 
tions, without  any  preliminary  sketches.  When 
composing,  he  often  seemed  like  one  in  a  trance. 
Vogl,  in  a  page  of  his  diary  already  referred  to, 
as  well  as  in  a  letter  to  Stadler,  refers  to  Schu- 
bert's compositions  as  works  produced  in  a 
state  resembling  clairvoyance  or  somnambu- 
lism ;  and  other  friends,  like  Schonstein  and 
Schober,  who  had  occasion  to  observe  him  in 
moments  of  creativeness,  received  the  same  im- 
pression. As  Spaun  writes : 

"  Those  who  were  intimately  acquainted  with  him  knew 
how  deeply  he  was  affected  by  his  creations  and  how  he 
gave  birth  to  them  in  pain.  No  one  who  ever  saw  him  on 
a  forenoon  while  he  was  composing,  with  glowing  face  and 
sparkling  eyes,  his  very  speech  changed,  resembling  a  som- 
nambulist, will  ever  forget  the  impression.  How,  indeed, 
could  he  have  written  these  songs  without  being  stirred  in 
his  inmost  soul !  In  the  afternoon,  to  be  sure,  he  was  dif- 
ferent ;  but  he  was  tender  and  deep  in  his  feelings,  only  he 
did  not  like  to  expose  them,  but  preferred  to  keep  them  locked 
up  within." 

63 


Schubert 

Sir  George  Grove,  who  has  shown  a  keener 
and  deeper  appreciation  of  Schubert's  genius 
than  any  other  Englishman,  has  well  remarked  : 

"  In  hearing  Schubert's  compositions  it  is  often  as  if  one 
were  brought  more  immediately  and  closely  into  contact  with 
music  itself  than  is  the  case  in  the  works  of  others  ;  as  if  in 
his  pieces  the  stream  from  the  great  heavenly  reservoir  were 
dashing  over  us,  or  flowing  through  us,  more  directly,  with 
less  admixture  of  any  medium  or  channel,  than  it  does  in  those 
of  any  other  writer.  .  .  .  No  sketches,  no  delay,  no  anx- 
ious period  of  preparation,  no  revision  appear  to  have  been 
necessary.  He  had  but  to  read  the  poem,  to  surrender  him- 
self to  the  torrent,  and  to  put  down  what  was  given  him  to 
say,  as  it  rushed  through  his  mind." 

Instances  will  be  given  presently  of  the 
startling  suddenness  with  which  the  music 
suitable  to  a  poem  often  sprang  up  in  his  mind 
full-fledged,  like  love  at  first  sight.  He  com- 
posed as  a  bird  sings  in  spring,  or  as  a  well 
gushes  from  a  mountain  side,  simply  because 
he  could  not  help  it.  Spaun  relates  that  Schu- 
bert, when  he  slept  in  his  room,  often  kept  his 
spectacles  on  his  nose  all  night  and  as  soon  as 
he  woke  up,  without  waiting  to  dress,  sat  down 
and  wrote  the  loveliest  songs.  Nothing  could 
stop  the  flow  of  his  inspiration.  It  is  related  by 
Randhartinger  that  one  day  he  dashed  down 
the  highly  dramatic  song  The  Dwarf,  at  a  pub- 
lisher's request,  without  having  seen  the  poem 

64 


Schubert 

before  and  without  finding  it  necessary  to  in- 
terrupt, while  he  was  writing  it,  a  conversation 
he  was  engaged  in.  Even  illness  did  not  anni- 
hilate his  creative  activity.  Some  of  the  Muller- 
lieder  were  composed  in  a  hospital.  He  wrote 
simply  for  the  pleasure  of  writing,  and  the 
fact  that  he  had  to  wait  seven  years  before 
any  of  his  songs  were  printed  did  not  in  the 
least  check  his  creativeness.  When  Hiller  once 
asked  him  whether  he  wrote  much,  he  replied : 
"  I  compose  every  morning  ;  and  when  one  piece 
is  done  I  begin  another;"  and  Lachner  relates  that 
after  he  had  sung  or  played  a  new  composition 
he  would  often  put  it  away  and  never  think  of 
it  again. 

Not  less  astounding  than  his  spontaneity 
was  his  fertility,  especially  in  his  earlier  years. 
In  1815,  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  wrote 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  songs,  which 
fill  up  two  volumes  of  the  ten  in  the 
Breitkopf  &  Hartel  complete  edition!  The 
number  for  the  following  year  was  one  hun- 
dred and  ten.  Six  of  the  fine  Winterreise  songs 
were  written  in  one  morning,  and  he  is  known 
to  have  set  to  music  as  many  as  eight  poems  in 
one  day.  Of  his  opera  Fierrabras  he  composed 
three  hundred  manuscript  pages  in  a  week, 
a  thousand  pages  in  four  months,  with  a  num- 
ber of  songs  and  piano-forte  pieces  thrown  in. 

65 


Schubert 

One  reason  why  Schubert's  friends  compared 
him  to  a  somnambulist  was  that  he  did  not  al- 
ways remember  in  his  normal  condition  what 
he  had  written  while  in  the  state  of  "  clairvoy- 
ance." On  one  occasion  he  took  some  new 
songs  for  inspection  to  Vogl.  Happening  to 
be  busy  the  tenor  laid  them  aside.  Examining 
them  subsequently,  he  came  across  one  which 
he  liked  particularly,  but,  as  it  was  in  an  incon- 
venient key,  he  had  it  transposed.  A  fortnight 
later  when  Schubert  made  another  call,  Vogl 
placed  this  copy  before  him  and  sang  it.  The 
composer  played  the  piano  part,  and  at  the  end 
exclaimed:  "Look  here!  That's  not  a  bad 
song !  Whose  is  it  ?  " 

While  Schubert  was  undoubtedly  the  most 
spontaneous  of  all  musicians,  the  notion  that  he 
practically  shook  his  compositions  from  his 
sleeves  and  never  paid  any  further  attention  to 
them,  can  no  longer  be  upheld.  The  painstak- 
ing researches  of  Friedlander  and  Mandyc- 
zewski  have  shown  that  he  resorted  to  revision 
and  filing  much  more  frequently  than  has  been 
supposed.  In  the  ten  volumes  of  Breitkopf 
&  Hartel's  complete  edition  there  are  six 
hundred  and  three  songs,  and  among  them 
no  fewer  than  fifty-two  which  appear  in 
two  versions.  Two  others  were  taken  up 
three  times,  and  three — including  The  Trout 

66 


Schubert 

and  The  Erlking — four  times.  Most  of  the  sec- 
ond and  third  versions  are  of  songs  written 
before  his  twentieth  year.  But  in  some  cases 
he  rewrote  songs  many  years  after  their  first 
composition ;  Nur  wer  die  Sehnsucht  Kennt 
(Mignori),  for  instance,  of  which  the  first  version 
is  dated  1815,  the  last  1827.  In  the  later  ver- 
sions, and  when  the  songs  were  sent  to  the 
printer,  he  also  carefully  revised  the  expres- 
sion marks.* 


*  In  Max  Friedlander's  "  Supplement  "  to  the  Peters  edition 
of  Schubert's  songs  (7  vols.,  including  443  songs),  and  in  Euse- 
bius  Mandyczewski's  "  Revisions-bericht "  accompanying  the 
Breitkopf  &  Hartel  edition  (10  vols.,  603  songs)  the  changes  made 
by  Schubert  in  the  different  versions  are  carefully  noted,  and  we 
get  from  these  volumes  an  insight  into  the  workshop  of  his 
genius,  as  we  do  into  Beethoven's  from  the  "sketches"  published 
by  Nottebohm.  But  the  critical  labors  of  these  editors  do  not  end 
there.  They  have  done  an  inestimable  service  to  the  world  by  re- 
storing the  original  text  of  many  of  the  songs.  Poor  Schubert 
was  pursued  by  his  misfortunes,  even  after  his  death.  The  chaste 
simplicity  of  his  melodies  and  the  originality  of  his  harmonies 
were  not  appreciated  by  his  contemporaries  as  they  are  now. 
Even  during  his  lifetime  his  friend,  Vogl,  as  we  have  seen,  used  to 
"adorn"  his  songs  with  operatic  embellishments,  following  the 
custom  of  the  time,  and  convinced  that  he  was  doing  him  a  good 
service.  After  Schubert's  death  some  publishers  had  the  unhappy 
thought  of  printing  the  songs  with  these  stupid  embellishments  ; 
and  thus,  for  half  a  century  or  more,  the  grossest  mistakes  re- 
mained in  the  various  printed  editions  of  even  the  most  famous  of 
the  songs.  Nor  were  the  publishers  content  with  the  superadded 
operatic  frills  and  furbelows.  They  marred  many  of  the  songs  by 

67 


Schubert 

Composers  differ  greatly  in  regard  to  the  ma- 
turing of  their  genius.  At  an  age  (thirty-one) 
corresponding  to  that  at  which  Schubert  died, 
Beethoven  had  conceived  only  the  first  two  of 
his  symphonies;  which  might  almost  have  been 
written  by  Mozart,  so  little  is  there  in  them  of 
the  true  Beethoven.  Wagner,  at  the  corre- 
sponding age,  had  written  only  the  least  Wag- 


manufactured  introductory  bars,  sometimes  amazingly  trivial  and 
inane.  Nay,  they  did  not  hesitate,  with  a  view  of  rendering  the 
songs  more  palatable  to  the  public,  to  erase  some  of  Schubert's 
finest  nuances  in  melody  or  accompaniment  ;  or  to  change  his 
bold,  original  harmonies  to  conventional  chords.  Misprints, 
carefully  reproduced,  added  to  the  confusion.  Many  of  the 
songs,  furthermore,  were,  to  their  detriment,  transposed  to  other 
keys.  It  is  true  that  Schubert  was  less  particular  in  this  matter 
than  his  successor,  Robert  Franz ;  being  willing  to  allow  a  tem- 
porary transposition  in  order  to  accommodate  a  singer.  Yet  he 
had  his  reasons  for  writing  a  song  in  this  or  that  key,  and  when- 
ever a  publisher  begged  him  to  choose  an  easier  one,  with  fewer 
flats  or  sharps,  he  used  to  reply  (as  Spaun  informs  us)  that  he 
could  not  write  otherwise,  and  that  those  who  could  not  play  his 
piano  parts  as  he  had  written  them,  might  as  well  leave  them 
alone. 

For  detailed  information  on  all  these  points  see  No.  43  of 
Breitkopf  &  Hartel's  Mittheilungen,  and  an  article  by  Friedlander 
on  "  Falschungen  in  Schubert's  Liedern,"  in  Chrysander's  Vier- 
teljahrsschrift  fiir  Mttsikwissenschaft,  1893,  pp.  166-185. 
Those  who  can  read  French,  but  not  German,  will  find  much  perti- 
nent information,  together  with  a  chronological  list  of  Schubert's 
603  songs  (German  and  French  titles),  in  Les  Lieder  de  Franz 
Schubert,  by  Henri  de  Curzon,  Paris,  1899,  pp.  112. 

6S 


Schubert 

nerian  of  his  works,  up  to  Rienzi  and  the  Flying 
Dutchman.  But  Schubert  wrote  original  and 
immortal  compositions  as  a  mere  boy  of  seven- 
teen and  eighteen,  including  Margaret  at  the 
Spinning  Wheel,  the  Rose  on  the  Heath,  the  Wan- 
derer's Night  Song,  and  the  Er Iking.  He  began 
to  write,  as  we  have  seen,  several  years  sooner. 
His  first  efforts  were  destroyed,  the  earliest  sur- 
viving song  being  dated  March  30,  1811.  It  is 
entitled  Hagars  Lament,  and  as  Schubert  was 
only  fourteen  when  he  wrote  it,  we  are  not  sur- 
prised to  find  it  a  close  imitation  of  the  song  on 
the  same  theme  written  by  the  Stuttgart  com- 
poser Zumsteeg,  whom  (as  we  have  already 
said)  he  admired  greatly.  Like  many  of  the 
earlier  songs  (and  not  a  few  of  the  later  ones), 
it  is  very  long — fifteen  printed  pages — while  fre- 
quent changes  of  tempo  and  rhythm,  in  which 
he  follows  Zumsteeg,  break  it  up  into  a  dozen 
movements.  Soon,  however,  he  learned  to  use 
his  own  wings,  and  his  flights  grew  bolder  and 
bolder.  A  few  sketches  have  been  preserved 
which  show  that  at  this  early  period — the  "  ex- 
perimental years" — he  used  to  jot  down  the 
melody,  with  the  mere  outlines  of  the  piano 
part,  and  then  rewrite  and  elaborate  the  whole. 
There  are  two  ways  of  setting  a  poem  to 
music.  One  consists  in  adapting  to  the  first 
stanza  or  strophe  of  the  poem  a  melody  and  ac- 

69 


Schubert 

companiment  which  are  repeated  unchanged 
in  all  the  other  stanzas,  though  there  may  be 
a  dozen  or  more  of  them.  This  is  called  a 
strophic  song — the  typical  folk-song.  In  the 
other  kind,  which  the  Germans  call  a  durch- 
componirtes  Lied,  the  music  is  "  composed 
through";  that  is,  while  usually  repeating  the 
same  music  in  the  main,  the  composer  makes 
more  or  less  important  changes  in  the  melody 
or  accompaniment,  accordingly  as  the  mood 
of  the  poem  changes  in  the  several  stanzas. 

Among  the  early  songs  of  Schubert  we  find 
good  examples  of  both  these  kinds,  but  as  the 
through-composed  song  is  the  more  artistic,  he 
favors  that  from  the  beginning.  The  first  of  his 
realty  great  songs  is  of  this  kind.  It  is  the 
well-known  Margaret  at  the  Spinning  Wheel 
(dated  October,  1814,  and  the  thirty-first  of  the 
preserved  songs).  Here  we  already  find  Schu- 
bert's spontaneous  flow  of  melody,  with  some 
of  his  harmonic  peculiarities ;  while  the  whirl- 
ing, monotonous  figure  of  the  accompaniment 
picturesquely  suggests  the  motion  of  the  wheel, 
dramatically  interrupted  by  a  few  pensive 
chords  at  the  words  "  And  oh,  his  kiss  !  " — one 
of  those  strokes  of  genius  with  which  Schubert 
was  destined  to  show — like  Wagner  after  him 
— how  greatly  the  effect  even  of  the  best  poem 
can  be  enhanced  by  sympathetic  music. 

70 


Schubert 

Among  the  one  hundred  and  forty-four  songs 
ii  the  year  1815  there  are  (besides  other  gems 
that  I  cannot  stop  to  describe — like  Rast/ose 
Liebe*  Ossian  songs,  etc.,)  two  world-famed 
and  perfect  specimens  of  both  the  stroph- 
ic  and  the  through-composed  kind — the  ex- 
quisite Rose  on  the  Heather,  simple  as  a  folk- 
song yet  with  the  fragrance  of  individual 
genius,  and  the  Er Iking.  The  excellence  of 
these  songs  is  the  more  remarkable  when  con- 
trasted with  other  songs  of  this  year.  They 
were  written  amid  the  drudgery  of  school 
teaching,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  most  of 
them  are  mediocre,  or  worse.  And  yet,  when 
I  play  them  over  and  begin  to  wonder  how  a 
first-rate  genius  could  have  penned  such  stuff, 
nearly  always  I  come  across  a  few  bars  which 
change  my  question  to  "  How  could  a  mere 
boy  have  had  such  a  happy  thought?"  The 
strangest  thing  about  Schubert's  genius  is  that 
even  in  his  later  years  we  often  find  the  com- 
monplace and  the  sublime  side  by  side.  But 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  least  interest- 
ing of  his  songs  are  still  superior  to  most  of  the 
productions  of  his  predecessors,  be  their  names 
Reichardt  and  Zelter  or  Gluck,  Haydn,  Mozart, 

*  Bauernfeld  relates  regarding  this  song  that  when  it  was  com- 
posed the  paroxysm  of  inspiration  was  so  fierce  that  Schubert 
spoke  of  it  years  afterward. 

71 


Schubert 

and  Beethoven.  He  set  the  high-water  mark 
so  high  that  he  himself  could  not  always 
reach  it. 

The  Erlking  is  probably  the  best  known  of 
all  the  Schubert  songs,  having  long  been  a  fa- 
vorite not  only  of  vocalists  but  of  pianists  too, 
in  the  masterly  arrangement  of  Liszt*  which 
always  evokes  unbounded  enthusiasm.  Luckily 
we  know  a  good  deal  about  this  song.  It  was 
composed  toward  the  close  of  the  year  1815,  and 
Spaun  has  told  us  how  it  happened : 

"  One  afternoon  I  went  with  Mayrhofer  to  Schubert,  who 
was  living  at  that  time  with  his  father  in  the  Himmelpfort- 
grunde.  We  found  Schubert  all  aglow  reading  the  Erlking 

*  Liszt  showed  his  devotion  to  "the  most  poetic  musician  that 
ever  was  "  by  acts  as  well  as  in  words.  He  transcribed  no  fewer 
than  a  hundred  of  the  Schubert  songs  for  the  piano ;  and  by  play- 
ing them  at  his  own  concerts  and  enabling  musicians  who  could 
not  sing  to  play  them  at  home,  he  did  a  great  deal  toward  making 
them  popular.  In  the  second  volume  of  her  biography  of  Liszt 
(Englished  by  Miss  Cowdery),  Lina  Ramann  has  an  interesting 
chapter  on  this  subject,  in  which  she  justly  points  out  that  Liszt 
really  established  a  new  branch  of  art  when  he  made  these  song- 
transfers.  The  necessary  alterations  are  mostly  in  the  piano  part 
and  they  are  so  much  in  touch  with  the  original  that  the  com- 
poser rarely  suffers,  while  the  transcription  is  in  some  cases  even 
more  beautiful  than  the  original — in  Auf  dent  Wasser  zu  Singen, 
for  instance,  the  one  song  of  Schubert's  which  seems  to  me  better 
adapted  for  a  piano  piece  than  a  Lied.  Liszt's  arrangements  were 
received  "with  shouts  of  delight."  He,  like  Schubert  himself, 
knew  how  to  make  the  piano  "  sing  under  his  fingers." 

72 


Schubert 

aloud  from  a  book.  He  walked  up  and  down  the  room  sev- 
eral times,  book  in  hand,  then  suddenly  sat  down  and,  as  fast 
as  his  pen  could  travel,  put  the  splendid  ballad  on  paper.  As 
he  had  no  piano,  we  hurried  over  to  the  Convict,  and  there 
the  Erlking  was  sung  the  same  evening  and  received  with 
enthusiasm.  The  old  court-organist  Ruziczka  then  played  it 
over  himself,  without  the  voice,  in  all  parts  carefully  and  ap- 
preciatively, and  was  deeply  impressed  by  the  composition. 
When  some  of  those  present  objected  to  a  dissonance  that 
occurs  repeatedly,  Ruziczka  struck  those  chords  and  explained 
how  inevitable  they  seemed  in  view  of  the  text,  and  how  fine, 
and  how  happily  they  were  resolved." 

The  reference  is,  of  course,  to  the  discords 
which  are  heard  when  the  child,  held  in  the 
arms  of  its  father  as  he  "  rides  through  night 
and  wind,"  expresses  its  fears  of  the  Erlking,  the 
forest-haunting  goblin.  "  Inevitable,"  indeed, 
these  dashing  dissonances  seem  in  this  place, 
but  they  were  a  new  thing  in  music,  and  it  took 
the  genius  of  Schubert  to  discover  their  inevi- 
tableness.  To  appreciate  the  innovation  we 
have  but  to  compare  Schubert's  Erlking  with 
the  earlier  setting  of  Reichardt,  in  which  one 
and  the  same  commonplace  melody  is  used  for 
the  speeches  of  father  and  son,  as  well  as  for 
the  narrative.  Schubert's  whole  atmosphere, 
on  the  contrary,  is  dramatic  :  the  coaxing  Erl- 
king, the  terrified  child,  the  soothing  father, 
have  each  a  language  of  their  own,  different 
from  the  narrative.  And  how  realistically  the 

73 


Schubert 

piano  impersonates  the  horse  with  those  inces- 
sant galloping  triplets  !  But  the  climax  lies  in 
the  dissonances  first  referred  to.  Wagner  him- 
self in  his  mature  years  could  not  have  built  up 
a  more  ingenious  dramatic  climax  than  the  eigh- 
teen-year-old Schubert  did  in  this  ballad  of 
Goethe's.  Note  that  the  dissonance — C  and  D 
with  E  flat — first  occurs  (forte)  when  the  child 
asks  the  father  if  he  does  not  see  the  Erlking. 
The  second  time,  when  the  child  asks  the  father 
if  he  sees  not  the  Erlking's  daughters  in  their 
gloomy  haunts,  it  is  an  interval  higher — D,  E,  F; 
and  finally,  when  the  child  cries,  "  My  father, 
my  father,  he  seizes  me  now  !  "  we  have  a  still 
higher  and  more  shrill  dissonance — E  flat,  F, 
G  flat — sung  and  played  fortissimo.  The  effect 
is  thrilling.* 

*  While  these  subtleties  were  the  product  of  instantaneous  inspi- 
ration, other  fine  details  were  the  result  of  reflection  and  revision. 
Thus  the  alluring,  soothing  love-song  of  the  Erlking,  "  Ich  liebe 
dick,  mich  reizt  deine  schone  Gesta/t,"  was  originally  marked^  in 
the  manuscript,  but  Schubert  subsequently  changed  it  with  a  red 
pencil  to/>/,  which  is  infinitely  more  appropriate  and  impressive. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  true,  as  some  have  surmised,  that  the 
triplets  in  the  piano  part  are  an  afterthought.  The  fact  that  one 
of  the  manuscripts  of  the  Erlking  (at  the  Berlin  Royal  Library) 
has 


in  place  of 


74 


Schubert 

Although  the  Erlking  is  No.  178  in  the  list  of 
Schubert's  songs  and  was  written  in  1815,  it 
was  not  published  till  1821,  seven  years  before 
his  death.  Though  he  had  already  written  four 
hundred  songs  at  that  date,  the  publishers  would 
have  nothing  to  do  with  any  of  them,  refusing 
the  Erlking  on  the  ground  that  they  "  could  not 
expect  it  to  succeed,  because  the  composer  was 
unknown  and  the  piano-forte  part  too  difficult." 
It  was  then,  as  we  have  seen,  brought  out  by 
subscription  as  opus  i.  It  had  already  been 
popular  for  some  years  in  private  circles,  and 
the  publication  soon  increased  its  vogue.  From 
that  time  to  the  present  all  sorts  of  arrange- 
ments have  been  made  of  it.  His  own  brother 
Ferdinand  adapted  it  for  solo  voices,  mixed 
chorus  and  orchestra,  and  Berlioz  subsequently 
made  an  orchestral  version.  Hiittenbrenner 


gave  rise  to  this  notion ;  but  the  evidence  collected  by  Friedlander 
("  Die  Erste  Form  des  ErlkOnigs  "  in  Chrysander's  Vierteljahrs- 
schrift,  1887,  pp.  122-128;  see,  also,  Albert  B.  Bach's  The  Art 
Ballad,  p.  107,  for  further  evidence)  leaves  no  doubt  that  the 
quavers  represent  a  later  version,  not  intended,  however,  by  any 
means  as  an  improvement  on  the  more  hurried  and  realistic  trip- 
lets, but  as  a  convenience.  A  son  of  the  tenor  Earth  informed 
Friedlander  that  Schubert  himself  once  accompanied  this  song  for 
his  father  in  quavers,  and  when  asked  why  he  did  not  use  the  trip- 
lets, replied,  "I  leave  those  to  others,  for  me  they  are  too  diffi- 
cult." It  must  be  remembered  that  the  pianos  of  that  time  did  not 
have  the  perfect  mechanism  of  ours. 

75 


Schubert 

went  so  far  as  to  write  an  Erlking  Waltz,  which 
seems  to  have  annoyed  Schubert;  though  he 
himself  used  to  amuse  his  friends  by  singing  it 
through  a  comb  in  the  most  tragi-comic  way. 
At  other  times  he  distributed  the  parts  of  the 
father,  son,  and  Erlking;  singing  one  himself 
while  Vogl  and  some  one  else  took  the  others.* 
Among  the  gems  of  the  year  following  the 
£rl&ing(i8i6)a.re  the  third  version  of  Schiller's 
The  Maiden's  Lament — a  gem  of  the  romantic 
mood  —  and  the  world-famed  Wanderer,  one 
strophic,  the  other  through-composed  ;  both  of 
them  Schubert  in  every  bar  and  far  superior  to 
any  song  composed  before  him.  Like  the  Erl- 
king, the  Wanderer  was  written  at  one  sitting, 
the  reading  of  the  poem  having  at  once  sug- 
gested the  music.  The  passage  beginning  with 
the  words,  "  Die  Sonne  diinkt  mich  hier  so 
kalt"  was  adopted  by  Schubert  in  1820  as  the 
theme  of  the  adagio  in  his  C  major  fantasia  for 
piano-forte. 

*  Besides  Schubert's  setting  of  the  Erlking  there  are  at  least 
forty  others  ;  but  the  only  one  worthy  of  being  named  on  the  same 
day  is  Loewe's,  which  will  be  considered  presently.  An  amusing 
story  is  told  by  Friedlander  of  a  worthy  musician  (church-com- 
poser and  Kapellmeister)  named  Franz  Schubert,  who  appears  to 
have  been  mistaken  by  some  one  for  the  composer  of  Schubert's 
Erlking;  whereupon  he  wrote  a  letter  to  H  artel  protesting  indig- 
nantly against  being  insulted  by  having  this  bungling  piece  (Mack- 
iverK)  attributed  to  his  pen  ! 

76 


Schubert 

In  some  respects  more  wonderful  even  than 
any  of  the  songs  so  far  named  is  Death  and  the 
Maiden,  of  the  following  year  (1817).  No  other 
Lied  has  thrilled  me  so  often  as  this  one ;  I 
know  none  which  conjures  up  a  sombre  mood 
with  such  simple  means.  After  the  poor  girl 
has  begged  the  "  skeleton  man  "  to  pass  her  by 
because  she  is  so  young,  how  full  of  gloomy 
foreboding  are  the  two  bars  leading  over  to  the 
second  speaker — Death!  And  while  he  asks 
her  in  soothing  tones  not  to  dread  him,  since 
he  has  come  not  to  punish,  but  to  let  her  sleep 
gently  in  his  arms,  his  monotonous,  cavernous 
tones  and  the  strange  modulations  tell  us  his 
real  intentions.  Did  ever  music  in  a  major 
mood  thus  produce  the  effect  of  a  weird  minor? 
Schubert  knew  the  charm  of  this  song  as  well 
as  any  one.  He  knew,  too,  that  it  contained 
within  its  few  bars  the  germs  of  melodies  and 
harmonies  capable  of  delightful  expansion  ;  and 
this  task  he  fortunately  undertook  some  years 
later,  when  he  made  this  song  the  theme  of 
the  variations  constituting  the  second  move- 
ment of  his  D  minor  quartet — the  most  inspired 
set  of  variations  in  the  whole  range  of  music.* 

*  In  my  opinion  Schubert  is  not  only  the  greatest  of  all  song- 
writers, but  also  superior  to  all  other  masters  in  chamber-music — 
in  melodic  fertility,  harmonic  originality,  sensuous  beauty  of  col- 
oring, and  appeal  to  the  emotions.  Epoch-making,  also,  are  his 

77 


Schubert 

I  may  add  that  one  of  Schubert's  own  brothers 
committed  the  crime  of  cutting  up  the  manu- 
script into  about  a  dozen  pieces,  which  were 
distributed  among  autograph  fiends.  Three 
of  these  fragments  have  been  recovered,  and  on 
one  of  them  was  the  date  of  the  song,  it  having 
been  one  of  Schubert's  good  habits  to  write 
down  the  day  on  which  he  completed  a  compo- 
sition. 

To  the  same  year  as  Death  and  the  Maiden 
belongs  another  of  the  most  popular  songs, 
The  Trout,  of  which  there  are  four  versions. 
The  first  manuscript  has  a  large  blotch  of  ink 
over  its  first  bars,  and  a  few  explanatory  lines  in 

short  pieces  for  piano-forte  ;  the  most  idiomatic  compositions  for 
that  instrument  written  before  Chopin,  and  the  forerunners  of  the 
various  short  pieces  which  characterize  the  romantic  school.  In 
these  things,  as  in  his  modulations,  Schubert  is  the  father  of  the 
romantic  school.  His  general  rank  in  music  is  a  much  higher 
one  than  that  usually  assigned  to  him  by  historians.  Rubinstein 
proclaimed  him  one  of  the  three  greatest  of  all  masters.  But  I 
have  no  space  to  discuss  this  matter  here.  See  my  article  on 
"Schubert's  Rank  as  a  Composer,"  in  the  Philadelphia  Etude, 
May,  1900.  In  that  article  I  also  disposed  of  the  ridiculous  charge 
that  Schubert  was  not  a  master  of  polyphony.  In  the  whole  range 
of  musical  biography  there  is  not  a  more  ludicrous  and  at  the  same 
time  pathetic  incident  than  the  resolution  of  poor  Schubert,  only  a 
few  weeks  before  his  death,  to  take  lessons  in  counterpoint  of 
Sechter.  The  "  friends"  who  urged  him  to  do  this  may  perhaps 
be  forgiven,  since  they  had  no  way  of  hearing  his  instrumental 
works ;  but  for  modern  writers  to  parrot  their  opinion  is  unpar- 

78 


Schubert 

Schubert's  handwriting  at  the  bottom  of  the 
page  :  "  Just  as  I  was  about  to  hurriedly  throw 
on  the  sand,  being  somewhat  sleepy,  I  seized 
the  inkstand  and  calmly  emptied  it.  What  a 
calamity ! "  On  the  next  page  he  wrote : 
"  Dearest  friend  !  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that 
you  like  my  songs.  As  a  proof  of  my  sincere 
friendship  I  here  send  you  another  one,  which 
I  have  just  now  written  at  Anselm  Hutten- 
brenner's,  at  midnight."  This  song,  also,  was 
used  afterwards  as  a  theme  for  variations,  in  the 
quintet,  opus  114. 

A  composer's  best  songs  are  not  always  the 
most   popular  of   them.     In  comparison   with 

donable.  There  are  imitative  passages  in  the  chamber  music  and 
symphonies,  and  in  many  of  the  songs  too  (think,  e.g.,  of  his 
Weinen  und  Lachen,  An  die  Thiiren  -will  ich  schleichen,  the 
melodious  bass  in  Aufenthalt,  etc.)  which  show  that  Schubert's 
genius  taught  him  more  about  counterpoint,  so  far  as  it  has  any 
musical  value,  than  a  thousand  Sechters  could  have  taught  him. 
As  Dr.  Dvorak  remarked  in  an  article  which  I  helped  him  to  write 
for  the  Century  Magazine  (July,  1894),  "though  Schubert's 
polyphony  be  different  from  Bach's  or  Beethoven's,  it  is  none  the 
less  admirable."  If  Schubert  had  added  Bach's  polyphony  to  his 
own  qualities  he  would  have  been  like  Robert  Franz.  But  is 
Franz  a  greater  song- writer  than  Schubert  because  he  is  usually 
polyphonic  ?  Dr.  Riemann  has  some  excellent  remarks  on  contra- 
puntal accompaniments  in  Schubert  and  others  in  his  Katechismus 
der  Gesangscomposition  (pp.  81,  87,  88,  91),  a  book  which  must 
be  warmly  commended  to  all  who  wish  to  write  songs  or  study 
their  anatomical  structure. 

79 


Schubert 

many  other  Lieder,  The  Trout  has  enjoyed  more 
vogue  than  it  deserves,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  some  other  songs.  Mr.  Elson  had  good  rea- 
sons for  writing  in  1888  that  Schubert's  songs 
were  not  even  then  "  appreciated  to  their  full 
extent  in  America,  where  the  musical  bonbon, 
the  Serenade,  is  too  often  held  to  be  the  great- 
est of  the  songs  of  this  composer."  To  be 
sure  this  serenade  (^l  Leise  fliehen  meine  Lieder') 
which  belongs  to  the  last  year  of  the  composer's 
life  (1828),  is  much  better  than  ninety-nine 
per  cent,  of  the  songs  in  vogue,  but  it  is  not  one 
of  Schubert's  best.  The  other  serenade  Hark, 
Hark  the  Lark  (1826)  is  a  more  favorable  speci- 
men of  his  muse,  and  in  Liszt's  arrangement 
it  has  also  become  a  favorite  of  concert  pianists ; 
Paderewski  plays  it  inimitably. 

The  origin  of  this  song  illustrates  the  spon- 
taneity of  Schubert's  genius.  One  afternoon 
when  he  was  sitting  with  some  friends  in  a  sub- 
urban tavern,  he  saw  a  book  lying  on  a  table. 
Turning  over  its  leaves  slowly,  he  suddenly 
halted  and  exclaimed :  "  A  lovely  melody  has 
just  come  into  my  head  ;  if  I  only  had  some 
music  paper  ! "  One  of  his  friends  promptly 
ruled  lines  on  the  back  of  a  bill  of  fare,  and 
Schubert,  undisturbed  by  the  tavern  noises, 
forthwith  jotted  down  the  immortal  song. 

To  the  year  1825  belongs  the  popular  Ave 
So 


Schubert 

Maria,  concerning  which  Schubert  wrote  in  a 
letter :  "  People  were  greatly  astonished  at  the 
devotion  which  I  have  thrown  into  the  Hymn 
to  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  it  seems  to  have 
seized  and  impressed  everybody.  I  think  that 
the  reason  of  this  is  that  I  never  force  myself 
into  devotion  or  compose  hymns  or  prayers 
unless  I  am  really  overpowered  by  the  feeling; 
that  alone  is  real,  true  devotion." 

The  Mignon  poems  in  Goethe's  Wilhelm 
Meister  appear  to  have  been  special  favorites  of 
Schubert;  but  here  again  the  one  best  known 
is  by  no  means  the  best.  Nur  wer  die  Sehn- 
sucht  Kennt,  which  is  included  among  the  "  Fa- 
vorite Songs,"  is  no  doubt  a  beautiful  song, 
yet  there  is  much  less  of  inspiration  and  of  the 
true  Schubert  in  it  than  in  the  two  settings 
of  So  lasst  mich  scheinen  bis  ich  werde.  The 
first  of  these,  dated  1821  (No.  395),  is  so  ex- 
quisitely musical  and  melancholy  that  it  cannot 
have  been  dissatisfaction  with  it  that  induced 
Schubert  to  give  the  poem  another  setting 
(No.  490)  entirely  different,  in  1826.  Robert 
Franz  included  this  second  one  in  his  collection 
of  Schubert  songs,  but  not  the  earlier  one ;  at 
which  I  am  surprised,  for  they  are  both  ravish- 
ingly  beautiful;  pervaded  by  a  euphony  of 
melody  and  harmony  such  as  no  one  had  at 
command  before  Schubert.  And  what  an  un- 

Si 


Schubert 

precedented  feat — to  give  two  immortal  set- 
tings to  one  song !  Nay,  he  even  commenced 
another  one,  which  unfortunately  remained  a 
fragment*.  The  other  Mignon  songs — Kennst 
du  das  Land  and  Heiss  mich  nicht  reden — are  far 
inferior  to  these,  though  the  last-named  is  not 
at  all  bad. 

Many  more  of  the  songs  deserve  separate 
mention,  but  the  limitations  of  space  compel 
me  to  content  myself  with  a  few  remarks  re- 
garding the  famous  song-cycles.  The  Pretty 
Maid  of  the  Mill  is  a  series  of  songs  based  on  a 
group  of  twenty-five  poems  of  that  name  by 


*  See  Mandyczewski's  Revisionsbericht,  pp.  85-86.  The  songs 
referred  to  may  be  found  in  vol.  vi.,  p.  31,  and  vol.  ii.,  p.  132 
of  the  Peters  edition  (which,  unfortunately,  is  not  arranged  chron- 
ologically), and  in  vol.  vi.,  p.  191,  and  vol.  viii.,  p.  172  of  the 
chronological  Gesammtausga.be  of  Breitkopf  &  Hartel.  In  this 
edition  there  are  no  fewer  than  five  versions  of  Nur  -wer  die 
Sehnsucht  Kennt.  Every  lover  of  German  song  ought  to  possess 
one  of  these  two  editions.  The  best  way  to  do  is  to  go  over  all  the 
songs  a  few  times,  marking  those  which  seem  best,  and  thus  sepa- 
rating the  wheat  from  the  chaff.  To  amateurs  who  have  not  suffi- 
cient faith  in  their  own  judgment,  I  cannot  commend  too  highly  the 
Auswahl  or  selection  of  sixty-one  Schubert  songs  made  by 
Robert  Franz  and  published  by  Breitkopf  &  Hartel.  Franz  chose 
particularly  those  songs  in  which  both  the  poem  and  the  music 
are  of  a  high  order  of  merit ;  omitting  those  in  which  the  music  too 
far  exceeds  in  value  the  verses.  But  this  does  not  prevent  his  col- 
lection from  including  the  best  songs ;  for,  as  a  rule,  Schubert's 
musical  inspiration  was  proportionate  to  the  merits  of  his  poems. 

82      • 


Schubert 

Wilhelm  Miiller  (the  father  of  Professor  Max 
Miiller).  The  poems  (five  of  which  Schubert 
omits)  tell  the  story  of  a  miller's  pretty  daugh- 
ter who  is  loved  by  a  young  apprentice  of  her 
father's  trade,  and  who  apparently  loves  him 
too;  but  her  fickle  mind  is  changed  by  the  ap- 
pearance of  a  gay  young  huntsman.  The  first 
ten  songs  present  the  various  phases  of  the 
young  miller's  courtship.  In  the  eleventh — 
Mine — he  is  at  last  able  to  proclaim  that  the  be- 
loved maid  is  his.  But  with  the  fourteenth  the 
hunter  appears,  exultation  is  displaced  by  jeal- 
ousy and  wounded  pride ;  and,  convinced  that 
she  is  lost  to  him  forever,  the  young  miller 
drowns  himself  in  the  brook,  which  in  the  last 
song  sings  his  lullaby. 

Schubert  was  not  the  first  to  write  a  song- 
cycle.  Beethoven  wrote  one  before  him,  a  set- 
ting of  Jeitteles's  "  Liederkreis,"  An  die  feme 
Geliebte — six  songs  of  no  great  musical  merit, 
but  having  each  its  own  music,  with  a  reminis- 
cence of  the  first  in  the  last,  and  connected  by 
instrumental  interludes.  Schubert's  Miiller- 
lieder  are  not  thus  connected.  The  bond  of 
union  here  lies  poetically  in  the  story  and  mu- 
sically in  the  picturesque  piano  part,  which 
constantly  keeps  before  our  eyes  the  brook 
along  which  the  whole  tragedy  is  enacted. 
"  Rivulets  dance  their  wayward  round,  and 

83 


Schubert 

beauty  born  of  murmuring  sound "  is  every- 
where. The  brook  plays  almost  as  prominent  a 
part  throughout  the  cycle  as  the  galloping 
horse  does  in  the  Erlking,  an  amazing  variety 
of  rhythmic  devices  being  used  to  make  us  ever 
aware  of  its  presence.  "The  brook  and  the 
mill-wheel,"  writes  Mr.  Elson,  "  have  mingled 
their  tones  through  the  set,  very  much  in  the 
same  manner  as  a  Leitmotiv  runs  through  a 
Wagnerian  opera ;  and  it  is  astonishing  to  note 
in  how  many  different  emotions  Schubert  has 
pictured  the  sequestered  stream." 

The  whole  series  of  the  Miillerlieder  was  com- 
posed in  one  week,  in  1823.  The  story  of  how 
they  happened  to  be  written  is  characteristic  of 
Schubert's  method  of  creating  songs.  When 
Randhartinger,  who  had  been  one  of  Schubert's 
schoolfellows,  resided  in  Herrengasse,  Vienna, 
Schubert  often  called  to  take  a  walk  with  him. 
One  afternoon  he  failed  to  find  his  friend  in, 
but  found  on  the  table  a  volume  containing  the 
Miillerlieder.  After  reading  a  few  of  them  he 
put  the  book  in  his  pocket  and  went  straight 
home  to  compose.  When  Randhartinger  re- 
turned he  missed  the  poems,  which  he  himself 
had  intended  to  set  to  music,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  he  was  surprised  to  find  his  book 
on  Schubert's  table.  "  Do  not  be  angry," 
pleaded  Schubert;  "the  poems  inspired  me  so 

34 


Schubert 

that  I  had  to  compose  music  to  them,  and  I 
scarcely  slept  two  hours  last  night,  and  now 
you  see  the  result.  I  have  already  seven  poems 
set  to  music.  I  hope  you  will  like  my  songs ; 
will  you  try  them  ?"  Randhartinger  sang  them, 
and  forthwith  gave  up  all  idea  of  writing  music 
of  his  own  for  these  poems.* 

The  Miillerlieder,  though  they  did  not  attract 
much  attention  when  they  first  appeared,  are 
now  sung  more  frequently  at  concerts,  and 
altogether  have  enjoyed  a  wider  popularity 
than  any  of  the  other  Schubert  cycles.  Here 
again  popularity  and  merit  are  not  synonymous. 
Robert  Franz  admitted  eleven  of  the  twenty 
Maid  of  the  Mill  songs  into  his  select  edition  ; 
and  among  those  there  are  at  least  five  (Wohin? 
Morgengruss,  Des  Mutter's  Blumen,  Trockeuc 
Blumen,  Die  Hebe  Farbe)  which  are  a  joy  forever; 
yet  none  of  them  quite  reaches  the  level  of  half 
a  dozen  of  the  Winter  Journey  songs,  which 
represent  Schubert  at  his  very  best. 

The  Winter  Journey  is  based  on  another  cycle  of 
poems  by  the  same  Wilhelm  Mullen  The  twen- 
ty-four poems  do  not,  however,  tell  a  continuous 
story,  as  the  Schone  Miillerin  does ;  and  Schu- 
bert accordingly  took  the  liberty  of  changing 
the  order  in  which  they  succeed  one  another. 

*  A.  B.  Bach,  The  Art  Ballad,  p.  105.     Kreissle,  p.  315. 
85 


Schubert 

Nor  did  he  compose  them  all  at  the  same  time. 
They  appeared  in  two  groups  of  twelve  each, 
the  first  group  being  begun  in  February,  1827. 
Half  a  dozen  of  them,  Lachner  tells  us,  were 
written  in  one  morning,  and,  as  before  stated, 
Schubert  received  only  twenty  cents  a  piece  for 
them.  The  best  numbers  in  this  first  group  are 
Gute  Nacht  (in  which  the  transition  from  minor 
to  major  at  the  words  "  Will  dich  im  Traum  " 
is  of  ineffable  beauty),  Gefror'ne  Thrdnen,  Erstar- 
rung,  Der  Lindenbaum,  Wasserfluth,  Irrlicht,  and 
Friihlingstraum. 

It  is  in  the  second  group  of  the  Winter  Jour- 
ney songs,  however,  that  Schubert,  as  I  have  in- 
timated, reaches  the  high-water  mark  of  his 
genius.  Die  Post,  Der  greise  Kopf,  Im  Dorfe,  Der 
stiirmische  Morgen,  and  especially  the  last  five — 
Der  Wegweiser,  Das  Wirthshaus,  Mut/i,  Die  Ne- 
bensonnen,  Der  Leiermann,  would  alone  have 
made  him  the  greatest  of  all  song-writers.  They 
are  ineffably  sad,  like  all  that  is  best  in  art.* 

*  I  shall  never  forget  the  day  when  I  first  heard  these  songs,  as 
a  youth  of  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  of  age.  We  were  living  in  the 
Oregon  wilderness  and  one  day  my  brother  Edward  received  the 
Winter  Journey  songs  and  sang  the  last  twelve  of  them  in  the 
evening.  I  was  lying  under  a  tree  in  front  of  the  house,  playing 
with  my  dog,  when  those  sad  strains  came  to  my  ears.  We  had 
had  good  music  in  our  house  ever  since  my  childhood,  but  noth- 
ing had  ever  affected  me  so  deeply  as  these  new  melodies  and 
modulations.  I  buried  my  face  in  Bruno's  fur  and  sobbed  like  a 

86 


Schubert 

Schubert  once  wrote  in  his  diary  that  "  Grief 
sharpens  the  intellect  and  strengthens  the  soul, 
whereas  joy  seldom  does  anything  for  the  one 
and  makes  the  other  weak  or  frivolous."  And 
again :  "  My  musical  compositions  are  the  prod- 
uct of  my  intellect  and  my  sorrows ;  those  which 
were  born  of  sorrow  alone,  appear  to  give  the 
world  the  most  satisfaction."  Though  natural- 
ly of  a  cheerful  disposition  he  had  his  days  of 
depression,  on  one  of  which  he  wrote  that  he 
wished  every  night  when  he  went  to  sleep  that 
he  might  never  awake  again.  The  interesting 
question  arises  whether  the  melancholy  songs 
of  the  Winter  Journey  are  a  record  of  personal 
grief,  expressing  "the  winter  of  his  discontent," 
or  whether  the  sad  music  is  simply  a  reflex  of 
the  sad  words.  His  personal  friends  and  biog- 

child.  To  this  day  I  cannot  play  them  over  without  having  tears 
come  to  my  eyes.  Indeed,  if  tears  are  the  deepest  and  most  sin- 
cere tribute  to  art,  I  must  place  Schubert  above  all  other  compos- 
ers, for  he  has  made  me  weep  oftener  than  any  other.  His  music 
evidently  had  the  same  effect  on  his  contemporaries.  Spaun  re- 
lates that  at  Linz  one  day  when  Vogl  sang  and  Schubert  played, 
the  performance  had  to  be  stopped  because,  after  some  sad  songs, 
all  the  women  and  girls  present  were  shedding  tears  and  the  men 
could  scarcely  hold  back  theirs.  When  Hiller  was  a  boy  he  heard 
Vogl  and  Schubert  in  Vienna.  He  relates  in  his  Kunstlerleben 
that  it  was  the  deepest  musical  impression  he  had  ever  received, 
and  that  tears  coursed  down  the  cheeks  even  of  the  veteran  Hum- 
mel. I  have  already  cited  Liszt's  confession  that  the  Schubert 
songs  often  moved  him  to  tears. 

8? 


Schubert 

raphers  have  expressed  contradictory  opinions 
on  the  subject.     Spaun  relates  : 

"  For  some  time  Schubert  had  been  in  a  melancholy  mood 
and  appeared  to  be  depressed.  To  my  question  what  was 
going  on  he  replied,  '  You  will  soon  find  out.'  One  day  he 
said  to  me  :  '  Come  to  Schober's  to-day,  I'll  sing  you  a  cycle 
of  weird  songs.  I  am  anxious  to  know  what  you  will  say. 
They  have  affected  me  more  deeply  than  any  of  my  other 
songs.'  When  the  time  came  he  sang  to  us  the  whole  of 
the  Winter  Journey.  We  were  quite  dumfounded  by  the 
gloomy  mood  of  these  songs,  and  Schober  finally  remarked 
that  he  liked  only  one  of  them — the  Lindenbaum.  Schubert 
replied  :  '  I  like  these  songs  better  than  any  of  the  others,  and 
you  will  come  to  like  them  too.'  He  was  right,  for  soon  we 
became  enthusiastic  over  these  melancholy  songs,  which  Vogl 
sang  incomparably." 

Mayrhofer  and  Kreissle  also  connect  the  mood 
of  these  songs  with  personal  disappointments ; 
whereas  Schober  thinks  that  Schubert  in  this 
case,  as  always,  simply  mirrored  in  his  music 
the  mood  of  the  poems.  Probably  the  mourn- 
fulness  of  these  songs  resulted  from  both  these 
factors  combined  ;  but  what  is  of  even  greater 
interest  is  the  question,  "Why  were  these  songs 
so  preeminently  inspired  ?  "  The  answer  is,  I 
think,  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  Schubert 
composed  them  immediately  after  a  delightful 
trip  in  the  country  lasting  nearly  two  months; 
during  which  he  was  happy  among  friends  and 

88 


Schubert 

admirers  and  laid  in  a  good  supply  of  energy 
and  creative  power.  He  enjoyed  himself  so 
much  on  this  trip  that  he  dreaded  the  idea  of 
returning  to  Vienna,*  and  it  is  probable  that  a 
tinge  of  longing  for  the  delights  of  the  country 
is  mingled  with  the  melancholy  of  the  last  songs 
of  the  Winter  Journey. 

At  the  same  time  the  gloom  that  pervades 
Muller's  poems  would  quite  suffice  to  account 
for  the  sadness  of  Schubert's  music,  which  is 
always  a  real  Doppelgdnger  of  the  poem  he  has 
in  hand.  The  first  of  the  second  set — Die  Post 
— depicts  the  anguish  of  soul  resulting  from  the 
failure  of  the  coach  to  bring  a  letter  from  the 
city  where  the  beloved  dwells.  This  song  is  in 
major,  and  rather  animated  in  tempo ;  yet,  as 
Sir  George  Grove  has  remarked,  "  even  in  the 
extraordinary  and  picturesque  energy  of  Die 
Post  there  is  a  deep  vein  of  sadness."  The 
next  number,  Der  greise  Kopf,  is  the  youth's 
lament  that  the  grave  still  seems  so  far  off. 
In  Die  Krdhe  the  youth  fancies  that  a  raven 
has  followed  him  from  the  town  in  the  ex- 
pectation of  dining  on  his  body.  Im  Dorfe 
tells  us  of  the  end  of  all  his  hopes.  Der  Stiir- 
mische  Morgen — the  stormy  morning — is  simply 

*  See  his  letter  to  Frau  Dr.  Pachler  printed  by  Kreissle,  pp. 
402,  403. 

89 


Schubert 

the  reflection  outdoors  of  the   winter  in   his 
soul. 

Sadder  and  sadder  become  the  poems,  more 
woe-begone  the  music.  Der  Wegweiser  shows  us 
the  guiding  post  which  points  to  the  undiscov- 
ered country  from  whose  bourne  no  traveller 
returns.  It  is  heart-rending  music,  and  one  of 
its  sublime  touches  is  the  unchanging  G  of  the 
melody  during  the  five  bars  in  which  the  youth's 
eyes  stare  fixedly  at  the  sign-post.  If  possible 
a  still  greater  miracle  of  genius  and  sadness  is 
the  next  song — Das  Wirthshaus.  This  "  tavern  " 
is  a  cemetery  which  seems  to  invite  the  weary 
wanderer ;  but  every  room  is  taken  and  there  is 
no  rest  for  him.  Here  again  Schubert  has  writ- 
ten in  a  major  key  a  song  more  pathetic  than 
any  other  composer's  minor  keys.  There  is  no 
song  I  love  more  than  this.  Muth  is  an  attempt 
to  shake  off  the  snow  and  take  courage.  It  is 
a  brisk  song,  but  it  is  in  a  minor  key ;  a  vain 
effort,  disconsolate,  like  all  the  others.  Another 
doleful  Lied  in  a  major  key  is  the  next,  Die 
Nebcnsonnen,  a  song,  like  the  others,  seemingly, 
as  inevitable  as  the  air  we  breathe,  yet  absolute- 
ly original  in  every  bar.  What  the  three  suns 
are  is  not  clear  from  the  poem.  Max  Miiller 
wrote  to  Dr.  Friedlander :  "  I  share  your  belief 
that  the  sun  and  the  two  eyes  of  the  beloved 
are  meant.  As  these  two  suns  shine  no  more, 

QO 


Schubert 

he  wants  the  third,  the  real  sun  of  life,  to  go 
down  too." 

The  disconsolate  climax  of  the  cycle  is 
reached  in  its  last  song,  Der  Leiermann.  In  a 
prose  translation :  "  Yon,  behind  the  village 
stands  the  hurdy-gurdy  player ;  with  stiffened 
fingers  he  turns  his  crank.  Barefoot  on  the  ice 
he  walks,  and  never  a  copper  is  in  his  tray. 
No  one  wants  to  hear  him,  no  one  looks  at  him ; 
the  dogs  growl,  yet  he  heeds  them  not,  but  in- 
cessantly turns  his  crank.  Shall  I  go  with  you, 
strange  old  man?  Will  you  accompany  my 
songs  with  your  instrument?" 

The  hurdy-gurdy  is  an  instrument  with  a 
drone-bass  of  two  tones  a  fifth  apart.  This  drone- 
bass  Schubert  imitates  by  repeating  the  notes 
A  E  incessantly  throughout  the  sixty-one  bars 
of  the  song,  producing  an  ineffably  melancholy 
and  realistic  effect,  which  is  heightened  by  the 
equally  characteristic  melody.  Though  the 
music  is  thus  simply  a  mirror  of  the  text,  one 
cannot  help  reading  into  it  a  bit  of  autobiog- 
raphy— for  did  not  Schubert,  also,  sing  on  in- 
cessantly ;  and  did  not  his  tray,  too,  remain  for- 
ever empty? 

If  anything  could  intensify  the  pathos  of 
these  songs  it  would  be  the  thought  that  Schu- 
bert's last  pen-strokes  were  made  while  revis- 
ing the  proof-sheets  of  them,  a  few  days  before 

91 


Schubert 

his  death ;  and  that  this  work  must  have  cast  an 
additional  gloom  on  his  illness  and  may  have 
hastened  the  end;  for  brain- work  is  very  inju- 
rious to  typhoid-fever  patients. 

While  these  Winter  Journey  songs  were  the 
last  that  Schubert  saw  in  print,  they  were  by 
no  means  the  last  he  had  composed.  The 
Leiermann  was  written  about  a  year  before  his 
death,  and  is  numbered  540.  After  it  he  wrote 
twenty-seven  more  Lieder,  the  last  of  the  four- 
teen included  in  the  Swan-song  group  being 
number  567.  Some  of  the  thirteen  songs  inter- 
vening between  the  Winter  Journey  of  1827  and 
the  Swan  song  of  1828  do  not  reach  a  very  high 
level,  but  in  the  Swan-song  group  we  not  only 
have  Schubert  again  at  his  very  best,  but  we 
find  him  (like  Wagner  after  Lohengrin)  making 
once  more  a  new  departure  and  creating  still 
another  epoch  in  the  evolution  of  the  Lied; 
opening  up  a  mine  in  which,  afterward,  Schu- 
mann and  others  delved  and  enriched  them- 
selves. 

The  name  Schwancngesang  was  given  to 
Schubert's  last  fourteen  songs  by  Hasslinger, 
their  publisher ;  and  owing  to  the  appropriate- 
ness of  the  title  it  has  been  retained.  All  but 
the  last  of  them  (the  Taubcnpost,  dated  October, 
1828)  were  written  in  August,  1828,  a  month 
forever  notable  in  the  annals  of  the  Lied,  for 

92 


Schubert 

seven  *  of  these  songs  are  among  the  very  best 
of  Schubert's  productions,  and  another  one,  the 
Serenade,  is  the  most  popular  of  all  his  songs. 

The  first  seven  of  these  fourteen  we  owe  in 
a  way  to  Beethoven.  That  is,  the  Rellstab 
poems  to  which  they  are  set  were  found  among 
Beethoven's  papers  and  Schindler  allowed  them 
to  be  taken  away  by  Schubert,  who,  two  days 
later,  brought  back  the  music  to  Liebesbotschaft, 
the  Kriegers  A/inung,  and  Aufenthalt.  The  last 
named  is  one  of  those  compositions  which 
caused  Rubinstein  to  exclaim  rapturously: 
"Once  more  and  a  thousand  times  more,  Bach, 
Beethoven,  and  Schubert  are  the  three  highest 
pinnacles  of  music."  It  is  a  song  which,  like 
many  others  of  the  Schwanengesang  and  Winter- 
reise  groups,  one  can  sing  daily  for  years  and 
never  tire  of  it,  and  which  must  send  the  cold 
shivers  down  the  back  of  any  one  who  hears  it 
the  first  time — provided  it  is  well  sung  and  well 
played.  There  is  in  it  as  superb  an  energy  as  in 
the  Erlking,  and  every  one  is  delighted  with  the 
animated  and  melodious  bass,  which  imitates 
the  voice  here  and  there  with  a  canonic  art  that 
old  Sechter  (who  was  to  give  Schubert  lessons 
in  counterpoint  shortly  after  this  song  was 

•  Aufenthalt,  In  der  Feme,  Der  Atlas,  Ihr  Bild,  Die  Stadt, 
Am  Meer,  Der  Doppelganger. 

93 


Schubert 

penned !  !)  could  not  have  attained  after  a  hun- 
dred years  of  pedagogics.  The  high  G,  eighteen 
bars  before  the  end,  is  as  grand  a  climax  as  can 
be  found  in  vocal  music ;  and  the  most  delight- 
ful interlude  I  know  of  is  the  eight  bars  follow- 
ing the  words  "  bleibet  mein  Schmerz."* 

In  this  song,  as  in  many  others,  Schubert 
soars  far  above  his  poet.  There  were  moments 
when  his  inspiration  was  so  elemental  and  irre- 
sistible that  any  poem  he  happened  to  have  in 
hand  got  the  benefit  of  it.  It  is  nevertheless 
true  that  a  fine  poem  did  much  to  command  that 
inspiration.  This  is  why  so  many  of  the  Goethe 
songs,  beginning  with  Margaret  at  the  Spin- 
ning Wheel  and  the  Erlking,  are  among  his 
best.  And  this  is  why  each  of  the  six  Heine 
songs  in  the  Schwanengesang\  is  a  gem.  They 
are  original  in  every  bar  in  spite  of  the 
five  hundred  and  sixty  songs  preceding  them, 
and  yet  every  bar  has  the  initials  F.  S. 
stamped  on  it.  Emotionally  these  songs  are 
as  wonderful  as  they  are  from  a  purely  mu- 
sical point  of  view.  How  different  is  the 

*  The  A  sharp  in  the  sixth  of  these  bars  is  one  of  those  strokes 
of  genius  which  make  the  study  of  Schubert's  songs  a  source  of 
ever-increasing  delight.  Only  in  the  white  heat  of  genius  could 
such  a  note  as  that  A  sharp  have  been  written. 

t  Der  Atlas,  Ihr  Bild,  Das  Fischermadchen,  Die  Stadt,  Am 
Meer,  Der  Doppelganger. 

94 


Schubert 

gloomy,  tragic,  heaving  agony  of  Der  Atlas, 
bearing  on  his  shoulders  the  sorrows  of  a 
world,  from  the  tender  pathos  of  the  lover 
who,  in  Ihr  Bild,  gazes  at  his  beloved's  picture, 
as  in  a  dream,  and  cannot  believe  that  he  has 
lost  her.  In  Die  Stadt  (The  City)  the  poet  is 
being  rowed  away  in  a  boat,  and  the  rays  of  the 
setting  sun  give  him  a  final  glimpse  of  the  city 
where  his  beloved  dwells.  In  this  song,  as 
Mr.  Elson  has  remarked,  "the  steady  plash  of 
the  oar  of  the  boatswain  and  the  gray  stillness 
of  the  waters  at  eventide  are  pictured  with 
graphic  power  by  a  constantly  recurring  broken 
chord."  Am  Meer  gives  us  another  splendid 
portrayal  of  the  sea.  "  Listen  to  the  few  chords 
that  introduce  and  close  Am  Meer,"  writes  Mr. 
Philip  Hale.  "  They  at  once  suggest  a  mood. 
They  speak  of  the  sea  at  nightfall,  and  yet  how 
simple  the  main  accompaniment!  How  simple 
the  structure  of  the  song  itself !  "  * 

With  the  exception  of  the  Taubenpost,  the  last 
two  of  the  songs  are  Am  Meer  and  Der  Doppel- 
gdnger — an  interesting  circumstance,  because 
they  typify  the  two  Schuberts.  Am  Meer  is  all 

*  Sir  George  Grove  devotes  an  interesting  paragraph  (p.  367, 
vol.  iii.,  of  his  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians')  to  the 
various  attempts  made  by  Schubert  to  imitate  sounds  of  nature  in 
his  songs — fluttering  leaves,  leaps  of  a  trout,  bells,  a  post-horn, 
the  song  of  the  nightingale,  -etc. 

95 


Schubert 

melody,  in  the  piano  part  as  well  as  in  the  voice. 
One  enjoys  it  more  if  one  knows  what  the  poem 
is  to  which  it  is  wedded,  and  one  admires  the 
appropriateness  of  the  music  to  the  words. 
Yet  it  is  so  complete  as  a  piece  of  music  that 
one  might  play  it  forever  as  a  mere  piano  piece 
— a  song  without  words — and  be  quite  satisfied. 
Not  so  with  the  Doppelgdnger.  That  grewsome 
poem  Schubert  composed  in  such  a  way  that  it 
needs  the  underlying  poem  as  a  complement  as 
imperatively  as  Wagner's  later  operas  do.  The 
music  enters  into  the  minutest  details  of  the 
poem,  not  only  verse  by  verse,  but  word  by 
word ;  so  that  we  have  here  an  anticipation 
not  only  of  Schumann,  but  even  of  Liszt.  To  se- 
cure this  exact  correspondence  with  the  poem, 
Schubert  discards  the  flowing  melody,  of  which 
he  was  the  supreme  master,  and  uses  for  the 
voice  a  sort  of  declamation  or  recitative,  not  un- 
like Wagner's  (who  at  that  time  was  a  boy  of 
fifteen).  The  singer's  task  here  is,  first  of  all, 
to  represent  and  interpret  the  poet,  while  to  the 
pianist  are  intrusted  chords  as  weird,  as  thrill- 
ing, as  modern,  as  those  which  accompany  the 
music  of  Erda  and  Klingsor  in  Wagner's  Sieg- 
fried and  Parsifal.  Heine's  poem  brings  before 
our  eyes  a  man  who  goes  at  night  to  gaze  at 
the  house  where  his  beloved  used  to  dwell.  In 
front  of  the  house,  to  his  dismay,  he  beholds  a 


Schubert 

pale  man  gazing  at  her  window,  wringing  his 
hands  in  agony  ;  and  the  moonlight  shows  him 
that  this  other  man  is  his  own  self — his  double 
(Doppelgdnger).  Schubert's  music,  bar  by  bar, 
would  fit  no  other  poem  than  Heine's  grew- 
some  tale,  and  from  this  point  of  view — as  well 
as  for  the  dramatic  expressiveness  of  its  chords 
— this  is  the  greatest  of  Schubert's  songs.  Had 
he  written  no  other,  he  would  still  be  the 
greatest  of  all  song-writers.  It  is  the  most 
thrilling,  the  most  dramatic  of  all  lyrics,  and  in 
penning  it  Schubert  helped  to  originate  the 
music  of  the  future.  Almost  as  much  as  in 
Weber's  Euryanthe  might  the  germs  of  the 
"  Art-work  of  the  Future "  be  found  in  the 
Doppelgdnger. 

In  view  of  all  these  things  one  feels  like  cry- 
ing out  aloud  in  agony  at  the  thought  that 
Schubert  should  have  died  just  when  a  new 
world  of  beauty  was  opening  before  him.  If 
he  could  have  lived  but  one  more  year,  to  set 
to  music  one  more  half-dozen  or  dozen  of 
Heine's  poems! — which  were  just  beginning  to 
appear  at  this  time.  Some  have  expressed  in- 
dignation at  the  epitaph  which  was  put  on 
Schubert's  grave  :  "  Music  has  here  entombed 
a  rich  treasure,  but  still  fairer  hopes; "  yet  this 
was  literally  true — more  so  than  those  who 
wrote  it  could  have  realized.  I  am  convinced 

97 


Schubert 

that  if  Schubert  had  lived  another  thirty  years 
he  would  have  anticipated  all  that  is  new  in  the 
harmonies  of  Wagner,  Liszt,  Chopin,  and  Grieg. 
As  a  creator  he  would  have  towered  as  high 
above  all  other  musicians  as  Shakespeare  does 
above  all  other  poets.  I  am  often  haunted  and 
tortured  by  the  words  he  spoke  on  his  deathbed 
to  Bauernfeld:  "  Entirely  new  harmonies  and 
rhythms  are  in  my  head."  But  they  were 
buried  in  his  grave  unborn.* 

The  belief  is  still  quite  prevalent  in  America 
and  England  that  there  is  less  melody  in  Ger- 
man music  than  in  Italian.  Schubert  alone 
would  utterly  refute  this  notion.  Of  all  melo- 
dists the  world  has  seen  he  was  the  most  spon- 
taneous, fertile,  and  inexhaustible.  Rossini  is 
the  prince  of  Italian  melodists,  and  in  1828  no 
one  would  have  dreamed  of  ranking  Schubert 
as  high  as  him.  But  what  has  become  of  Ros- 
sini's melodies?  With  the  exception  of  the  Bar- 

*  If  we  take  the  last  of  all  his  songs,  Die  Taubenpost  ( Carrier- 
pigeon)  and  play  the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  bar,  with  pedal, 
we  may  possibly  conjecture  what  line  of  development  these  new 
harmonies  would  have  taken.  Has  the  reader  ever  asked  himself 
whom  he  would  choose  to  be  if  a  fairy  permitted  him  to  exchange 
his  own  brain  for  that  of  any  person  of  the  past  ?  I  have  often 
asked  myself  that  question,  and  have  invariably  answered  "  Franz 
Schubert."  A  man  who  with  his  genius  began  where  he  left  off" 
could  do  greater  things  than  any  genius,  in  any  art,  has  ever  ac- 
complished 

98 


Schubert 

ber  of  Seville  and  a  few  tunes  from  his  other 
works,  age  has  staled  and  withered  them ;  where- 
as, Schubert's  melodies  are  as  fresh  and  as  mod- 
ern as  on  the  day  they  were  born.  Rossini's 
tunes  had  the  ornamental  stamp  of  fashion,  and 
fashion  is  transient;  whereas  Schubert's  melo- 
dies have  the  lasting  quality  of  chaste  folk- 
songs, with  the  added  charms  of  the  highest 
harmonic  art.  Schubert  liked  Rossini's  music; 
but  his  instinct  taught  him  a  higher,  nobler  style, 
which  fashion  cannot  affect.  At  one  time,  as  a 
youth,  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Salieri, 
who  tried  to  make  an  Italian  of  him,  advising 
him  not  to  waste  his  efforts  on  the  German 
poets  but  to  compose  Italian  stanzas.  He  did 
compose  a  dozen  or  more  songs  to  Italian 
words,*  but  here  he  was  like  a  fish  out  of  water. 
Mozart,  as  everybody  knows,  was  at  home 
among  the  Italians ;  and  his  vocal  music,  even 
in  the  German  Magic  Flute,  remains  essentially 
Italian.  But  Schubert  was  German  to  the  core, 
and  it  is  marvellous  that  he  should  have  sur- 
passed the  Italians — who  hitherto  had  had  al- 
most a  monopoly  of  vocal  music — not  only  in 
regard  to  the  artistic  union  of  verse  and  melo- 
dy, but  in  the  charm,  flow,  and  variety  of  mel- 
ody. Salieri's  advice  to  Schubert  that  he  should 

*  Printed  in  vol.  x.  of  the  Breitkopf  &  Hartel  edition. 
99 


Schubert 

"  husband  his  resources  of  melody  "  was  about 
as  useful  as  a  warning  to  an  artesian  well  not  to 
waste  its  water. 

Schubert's  harmonies  and  modulations  are  no 
less  original,  spontaneous,  and  varied  than  his 
melodies.  Robert  Franz  called  him  a  great  har- 
monic emancipator,  and  Dr.  Riemann  has  well 
said  that  "  the  entire  Schumann  and  the  entire 
Liszt  are  in  their  harmonies  an  outgrowth 
of  Schubert."  As  harmonic  innovators  Bach, 
Chopin,  and  Wagner  are,  in  my  opinion,  the 
only  peers  of  Schubert.  He  does  not,  however, 
like  those  masters,  modulate  habitually  with  the 
aid  of  chromatic  progressions,  but  simply  drops 
from  one  key  into  another  in  the  most  uncere- 
monious, unprecedented,  astonishing,  and  de- 
lightful way.  To  him  all  keys  are  sisters  or 
cousins.  Now  modulation — unexpectedly  pass- 
ing from  one  key  to  another — is  preeminently 
the  emotional  element  in  music,  and  Schubert's 
mastery  of  this  element  of  expression  explains 
the  power  of  his  songs,  above  all  others,  to 
evoke  tears.  Modulation,  too,  is  the  specifical- 
ly modern  element  in  music,  and  this  is  another 
reason  why  Schubert's  songs  seem  of  to-day  and 
not  of  nearly  a  century  ago.  His  modulation, 
furthermore,  brings  together  not  only  keys  but 
modes.  With  other  composers,  as  a  rule,  a 
song  is  either  in  major  or  in  minor ;  but  with 


Schubert 

Schubert  these  two  modes  are  twins  that  inter- 
twine in  nearly  every  song.  And  usually  there 
is  a  poetic  as  well  as  a  musical  reason  for  the 
change  from  one  mode  or  mood  to  another, 
showing  how  closely  Schubert  followed  the 
spirit  of  his  •  poems.  As  Sir  George  Grove 
has  aptly  said :  "  With  Schubert  the  minor 
mode  seems  to  be  synonymous  with  trouble, 
and  the  major  with  relief ;  and  the  mere  men- 
tion of  the  sun  or  a  smile  or  any  other  emblem 
of  gladness,  is  sure  to  make  him  modulate." 
All  these  harmonic  and  modulatory  features 
make  it  absurd  to  speak  of  the  piano  part  of 
Schubert's  songs  as  "  accompaniments,"  or  to 
play  them  as  such.  They  are  as  important  as 
the  orchestra  is  in  Wagner's  operas. 

If  anything  could  be  more  marvellous  than 
Schubert's  melodic  and  harmonic  spontaneity, 
originality,  and  variety,  it  would  be  the  singu- 
lar appropriateness — one  might  almost  say,  in- 
evitableness — of  his  music  to  the  poem  in  every 
case.  Here  his  rare  rhythmic  faculty  comes 
into  full  play  in  devising  suggestive  figures  or 
modes  of  movement.  And  the  miracle  of  it  is 
that  the  musical  idea  appropriate  to  a  poem 
came  to  him  without  trouble  or  reflection,  near- 
ly always  like  a  flash  of  lightning.  One  day  a 
lady  asked  him  to  set  to  music  a  certain  poem 
which  she  gave  him.  He  went  to  a  window, 


Schubert 

read  it  over  a  few  times,  and  exclaimed  :  "  I 
have  it ;  it  is  already  completed  and  will  be 
quite  good."  In  the  preceding  pages  I  have 
related  similar  instances,  all  of  them  showing 
how  differently  his  brain  worked  from  that  of 
most  other  composers,  who  usually  needed 
days,  weeks,  or  months  to  incubate  their  ideas. 
This  spontaneity  of  conception  and  rapidity  of 
execution  gave  rise  to  the  impression  that  he 
jotted  down  songs  as  we  write  letters,  without 
ever  revising  them.  This  impression,  which 
was  shared  even  by  Kreissle  and  Grove,  was 
corrected,  as  I  have  before  intimated,  by  Dr. 
Friedlander,  who  showed  that  Schubert  habit- 
ually copied  his  songs  and  nearly  always  intro- 
duced some  changes  and  improvements  in  the 
vocal  as  well  as  the  piano  part  and  the  expres- 
sion marks.  This  he  continued  to  do  even  in 
the  songs  of  the  last  years  of  his  life,  including 
the  Winterreise  and  Sch^vanengesang  cycles.  Far 
from  being  careless,  Schubert  was  extremely 
critical.  In  a  letter  to  his  brother  (cited  by 
Kreissle,  p.  329)  he  consoles  himself  over  the 
fate  of  some  of  his  songs  with  the  confession : 
"  only  a  few  of  them  seemed  to  me  good." 
There  is  plenty  of  other  evidence  to  show  that 
he  knew  better  than  any  one  else  which  of  his 
songs  were  mediocre.  Could  he  have  been 
consulted  by  Mandyczewski,  he  would  have 


Schubert 

doubtless  advised   him  to  omit  many  of  the 
songs  in  the  ten-volume  edition. 

Nor  is  it  true  that  he  was  uncritical  in  regard 
to  the  choice  of  his  poems,  as  has  been  assumed 
hitherto.  No  doubt  many  of  the  poems  he  set 
to  music  were  unworthy  of  such  an  honor. 
But  these  were  poems  he  chose  in  order  to 
please  friends,  or  because  there  happened  to  be 
no  other  bottles  at  hand  to  put  his  new  wine  in. 
Mandyczewski  has  truly  said  that  "  if  we  take 
the  works  of  all  the  poets  he  utilized  it  would 
be  impossible  to  make  better  selections  for 
musical  purposes  than  those  he  made."  He 
further  revealed  his  critical  fastidiousness  by 
the  way  in  which  he  omitted  from  a  cycle  a 
poem,  or  from  a  poem  a  stanza,  that  seemed  to 
him  unsuitable  for  musical  alliance.  Kreissle 
relates  an  incident  (p.  211)  showing  how  stub- 
born he  was  in  regard  to  such  details  as  the 
placing  of  accents.*  Each  new  poet — Schlegel, 
Miiller,  Platen,  Ruckert,  Rellstab,  Heine — was 
seized  upon  eagerly,  and  for  each  Schubert 
found  a  characteristic  musical  atmosphere. 
That  he  set  only  six  of  Heine's  poems  is  due  to 


*  He  had  a  dispute  with  Umlauff,  who  thought  that  in  the 
Wanderer  the  accent  should  be  "  O  Land,  wo  bist  du  ?" 
whereas  Schubert  insisted,  most  properly,  in  making  it  ' '  wo  list 
du?  " 

103 


Schubert 

the  fact  that  these  poems  did  not  begin  to  ap- 
pear till  shortly  before  his  death.* 

*  Eighty-nine  different  poets  and  writers  of  verse  were  drawn 
upon  by  Schubert.  Goethe  leads  with  72  poems,  followed  by 
Mayrhofer  with  47,  Schiller  46,  Wilhelm  Miiller  44,  etc.  Goethe, 
whom  Schubert  did  more  to  glorify  than  all  his  biographers  and 
commentators  put  together,  did  nothing  to  encourage  or  help  the 
struggling  young  composer.  When  the  poet  was  seventy  years 
old  Schubert  sent  him  copies  of  several  of  his  songs,  together  with 
a  letter,  but  Goethe  paid  no  attention  to  them,  thus  confirming 
his  own  diagnosis  when  he  wrote  (in  1796):  "  I  am  no  judge  of 
music."  The  great  dramatic  singer  Frau  Schroeder-Devrient 
(whom  Wagner  admired  so  much)  succeeded,  however,  in  arous- 
ing him,  at  the  age  of  82,  with  her  singing  of  the  Erlking.  The 
aged  poet  kissed  her  on  the  cheek  and  exclaimed  :  "  Thank  you 
a  thousand  times  for  this  grand  artistic  achievement.  I  heard 
this  song  once  before,  when  I  did  not  like  it  at  all ;  but  when 
sung  in  your  way,  it  becomes  a  true  picture." 


104 


IV 

German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

LOEWE  AND  THE  ART-BALLAD 

WE  have  seen  that  Schubert  was  born  three 
years  before  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  the  thirteenth  child  of  a  poor  school- 
master;  that  his  first  published  work  was  the 
Erlking;  that  he  became  famous  preeminently 
as  a  song-writer,  and  failed  with  his  operas. 
By  a  singular  coincidence  it  happened  that  on 
November  30,  1796,  just  two  months  before 
Schubert's  birth,  there  appeared  in  this  world, 
as  the  twelfth  son  of  a  poor  schoolmaster,  an- 
other boy  whose  first  published  work  included 
a  setting  of  the  Erlking,  who  became  famous 
chiefly  as  a  song-writer,  and  failed  with  his 
operas.  This  boy  was  Johann  Carl  Gottfried 
Loewe.  He,  too,  was  a  most  prolific  composer, 
but  he  had  seventy-two  years  to  live  and  work 
while  Schubert  had  only  thirty-one.  The  list 
of  his  works  includes  6  operas,  17  oratorios, 
about  400  ballads  and  other  songs,  besides  a  large 

105 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

number  of  works  for  chorus,  orchestra,  organ, 
and  piano. 

Loewe  had  the  advantage  over  Schubert  of 
enjoying  a  regular  position  as  organist  and  con- 
ductor, and  of  being  able  to  sing  his  own  songs 
on  concert  tours,  which  took  him  as  far  as  Eng- 
land. At  some  of  his  concerts  he  appeared  in  a 
fourfold  capacity  —  as  ballad-singer,  pianist, 
orchestral  conductor,  and  composer.  His 
voice,  a  tenor,  had  an  unusual  compass,  and  was 
quite  at  home  in  the  baritone  region.  He 
played  his  own  accompaniments,  and  his  enun- 
ciation of  the  words  was  remarkably  distinct. 
Nor  was  he  the  only  one  who  sang  his  songs 
well.  Senfft  von  Pilsach,  Krolop,  Friedrichs, 
and,  above  all,  Henschel  and  Gura,  brought 
them  forward  and  helped  to  secure  for  them 
considerable  popularity.  Then  came  a  time  of 
reaction,  so  that  Dr.  Gehring  wrote,  in  1880, 
that  "  his  music,  like  Reichardt's,  has  gone  by 
forever."  More  recently,  however,  strenuous 
efforts  have  been  made  to  revive  an  interest  in 
his  works.* 

*In  England  Albert  B.  Bach  wrote  a  book,  The  Art  Ballad: 
Loewe  and  Schubert,  of  which  several  editions  were  printed  in  a 
few  years.  In  1898  the  "  Harmonic  "  of  Berlin  brought  out  a 
book  by  Heinrich  Bulthaupt,  which  tells  the  story  of  Loewe's  life 
and  describes  his  principal  works.  These  books,  with  an  autobio- 
graphic sketch,  constitute  the  literature  on  the  subject;  and  to 
1 06 


Loewe  and  the  Art-Ballad 


While  Schubert  did  not  write  many  ballads, 
and  those  mostly  in  his  early  years,  Loewe  made 
a  specialty  of -this  species  of  song ;  and  of  all  his 
compositions  these  alone  have  survived.  The 
word  ballad,  unfortunately,  has  been  used  to 
designate  a  number  of  entirely  different  things. 
Its  original  meaning  was  "  dance-song  "  (from 
the  Italian  ballata).  In  England,  where  so-called 
"  ballad  concerts "  are  in  our  time  devoted  to 
all  kinds  of  popular  songs  indiscriminately, 
ballad  meant  a  dance-tune  as  late  as  the  seven- 
teenth century.  To-day  we  have  not  only  vocal 
ballads  but  ballads  for  piano,  violin,  or  orches- 
tra, in  which  there  is  no  trace  of  dance-music. 
The  poets  have  added  to  the  confusion  by  an 
inconsistent  use  of  the  word  ballad.*  In  this 
volume  we  are  concerned  with  the  meaning  of 
ballad  in  the  realm  of  song  only  ;  and  here  a 
glance  at  a  typical  ballad,  like  the  Erlking,  tells 
us  more  than  pages  of  esthetic  discussion. 


them  I  must  refer  those  who,  after  singing  over  the  ballads  con- 
tained in  the  "albums  "  or  selections  issued  by  various  publishers, 
feel  enough  interest  to  pursue  the  matter.  Enthusiasts  will,  of 
course,  procure  the  complete  edition  of  his  songs  by  Breitkopf  & 
Hartel,  in  seventeen  volumes.  Elson's  History  of  German  Song 
(pp.  210-214)  contains  an  excellent  analysis  of  Loewe's  method  of 
composing. 

*  See  Bulthaupt's  remarks  on  this  subject,  in  the  first  chapter  of 
his  book  on  Loewe. 

107 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

That  song  has  a  dramatic  element  in  so  far  as 
the  Erlking,  the  father,  and  the  child,  are  heard 
to  speak  in  melodies  of  their  own  ;  yet  it  is  not 
really  dramatic,  but  epic,  because  we  hear  them 
only  through  the  medium  of  the  narrator.  In 
other  words,  a  ballad  is  a  song  based  on  a  nar- 
rative (epic)  which  may  introduce  various  dra- 
matic, as  well  as  lyrical  elements,  and  which 
usually  has  a  background  of  romantic  scenery. 
The  German  poets  originally  got  the  subjects 
for  their  ballads  from  the  British  poets.  In 
the  south  the  place  of  the  ballad  is  taken  by  the 
more  lyrical  "romance  "  ;  the  French  romance 
being  usually  a  sentimental  love-song. 

Though  Loewe  failed  as  an  opera-composer, 
his  ballads  show  that  he  had  a  genuine  dramatic 
vein,  which  is  revealed  in  the  often  striking 
harmonies  of  his  piano  parts,  as  well  as  in  the 
effective  treatment  of  the  voice.  What  he  lacked 
was  the  divine  gift  of  imperishable  melody — 
that  wealth  of  ideas  which  has  made  Schubert 
immortal.  He  had  melodies  enough  in  his 
storehouse  to  furnish  forth,  perhaps,  forty  songs ; 
but  not  four  hundred.  In  his  case,  as  in  so 
many  others,  less  would  have  been  more. 
There  is  something  almost  amateurish  in  the 
way  in  which  he  introduces  a  theme  or  two  and 
keeps  on  repeating  them,  with  slight  changes  in 
rhythm  and  harmony,  throughout  an  intermi- 
108 


Mendelssohn 


nable  ballad.  In  many  cases  several  themes  fol- 
low one  another  like  a  mosaic  without  any  at- 
tempt at  elaboration  or  organic  union.  Yet 
with  all  these  defects,  there  are  among  these 
songs  a  considerable  number  that  deserve  to  be 
better  known ;  such  ballads  as  Henry  the  Fowler, 
Harald,  Edelfalk,  Der  Fischer,  The  Clock,  Der 
Noeck,  The  Moorish  Prince,  Oluf,  Odiris  Ride 
over  the  Sea,  and,  above  all,  Edward  and  the 
Er  Iking* 

MENDELSSOHN 

Never  was  a  name  more  appropriately  chosen 
than  that  of  Felix  Mendelssohn.  Felix  means 
lucky  or  happy ;  and  certainly  Mendelssohn 
was  the  luckiest,  and  had  every  reason  to  be 
the  happiest,  of  all  composers.  Not  only  was 
he,  as  the  son  of  wealthy  parents,  able  to  travel 
and  do  whatever  he  pleased,  but  throughout 

*  It  is  unfortunate  for  Loewe  that  some  of  his  champions,  like 
Albert  Bach  and  Bulthaupt,  should  have  tried  to  prove  not  only 
that  his  Erlking  is  a  splendid  composition — which  it  surely  is — 
but  that  it  is  even  superior  to  Schubert's.  It  is  possible  to  main- 
tain that  the  Erlking's  song  is  more  seductive  and  uncanny  in 
Loewe — though  I  think  the  hushed  pianissimo  accompaniment 
makes  Schubert's  more  so  ;  but  how  anyone  can  contend  that  the 
galloping  of  the  horse  is  more  realistic,  the  outcry  of  the  child  more 
agonized  in  Loewe  than  in  Schubert,  quite  passes  my  comprehen- 
sion. But  why  these  odious  comparisons  ?  Both  the  Erlkings 
are  masterpieces. 

109 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

his  life  (1809-1847)  he  enjoyed  a  popularity  far 
exceeding  that  of  his  superiors.  In  this  very 
prosperity,  however,  lay  the  greatest  danger  to 
his  genius.  His  music,  like  his  life,  is  all  sun- 
shine ;  and  eternal  sunshine  is  apt  to  prove  mo- 
notonous. There  are  no  clouds,  no  frowning 
cliffs,  no  dark  abysses,  in  his  songs.  They  are 
smooth,  elegant,  symmetrical,  gentlemanly, 
polished ;  but  never  deep,  sad,  pathetic,  or 
tragic.  Schubert  found  that  his  friends  liked 
his  sad  songs  best ;  but  Mendelssohn  had  no  oc- 
casion for  sad  songs.  Look  through  the  whole 
list  of  them — more  than  six  dozen — and  you  will 
not  find  one  the  sentiment  of  which  is  much 
more  than  skin-deep.  They  are,  in  truth  (like 
the  songs  of  Haydn,  Mozart,  Beethoven,  and 
Weber),  the  poorest  of  all  his  productions,  far 
inferior  to  his  instrumental  works — notably  his 
immortal  overtures.  Yet  so  popular  was  he  in 
his  day,  so  eagerly  did  the  shallow  public  ac- 
cept everything  that  came  from  his  pen,  that 
these  shallow  songs  enjoyed  for  decades  a  much 
greater  vogue  than  the  infinitely  more  inspired 
songs  of  Schubert,  Schumann,  and  Franz. 

The  inevitable  reaction  has  perhaps  carried 
the  pendulum  too  far  as  regards  Mendelssohn's 
music  in  general ;  but  not  too  far  as  regards  his 
songs,  most  of  which  stand  hopelessly  con- 
demned by  their  own  mediocrity.  Only  six  or 

1 10 


Mendelssohn 


seven  of  them  deserve  their  former  vogue — 
On  the  Wings  of  Song,  the  Winterlied  and  Sonn- 
tagslied,  the  Volkslied  ("  Es  1st  bestimmt  in  Gottes 
Rath  "),  Gruss,  O  Jugend,  O  Schone  Rosenzeit,  and 
the  Venetianisches  Gondellied.  These  are  fresh, 
individual,  tuneful,  and  charming.  In  the  oth- 
ers one  finds  here  and  there  a  pretty  melodic 
curve,  or  a  piquant  harmonic  progression ;  but 
for  the  most  part  they  are  aggravatingly  trivial 
and  insipid ;  reminding  one  by  their  painful 
dearth  of  ideas  of  the  productions  of  those  other 
song-writers  of  the  Berlin  school,  Reichardt 
and  Zelter.  Some  of  Mendelssohn's  songs  are 
instrumental  in  character,  and  there  is  usually 
too  much  conscious  striving  for  symmetry  and 
popularity — too  much  small  talk.  The  earlier 
songs  are  the  best.  In  his  later  ones,*  as  Rob- 
ert Franz  has  pointed  out,  "  there  is  no  naivete^ 
nothing  but  smooth,  polished,  elegant  workman- 
ship— no  passion,  but  only  the  semblance  of  it." 
He  is,  as  Mr.  Elson  remarks,  "  never  grand  or 
soul-stirring " ;  he  makes  symmetry  an  end 
rather  than  a  means ;  and  "  his  song-subjects 
seem  to  have  been  chosen  in  such  a  manner  that 
the  music  should  generally  be  more  important 
than  the  words."  Mr.  Elson  and  Sir  George 

*  The  Peters  edition  of  Mendelssohn's  songs  has  an  appended 
Textrevision  by  Max  Friedlander,  with  the  dates  of  the  songs. 

Ill 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

Grove  contend  that  Mendelssohn  did  good  by 
preparing  the  public  taste  to  appreciate  the 
deeper  song-writers  of  Germany.  There  may 
be  something  in  this.  At  the  same  time  his  ex- 
cessive popularity  (in  England  this  was  posi- 
tively grotesque)  for  a  long  time  kept  greater 
names  off  the  concert  programmes — as  Brahms 
does  to-day. 

SCHUMANN 

Schumann's  music,  like  Mendelssohn's,  is 
autobiographic.  While  Mendelssohn's  songs 
are  all  sunshine,  one  does  not  have  to  sing 
many  of  Schumann's  to  realize  that  his  life  was 
often  darkened  by  mists  and  storm-clouds.  He 
was  neither  wealthy  nor  was  his  genius  appre- 
ciated at  its  true  value  ;  and  he  fought  many 
battles  with  obtuse  critics  and  shallow  Philis- 
tines, not  so  much  in  his  own  behalf  as  for  the 
sake  of  other  men  of  genius  who  were  unduly 
neglected.  In  this  volume  we  are  concerned 
with  only  one  of  the  serious  episodes  in  his  life 
— his  courtship.  To  most  men  the  period  of 
courtship  is  the  heyday  of  life  ;  but  the  course 
of  Schumann's  love  did  not  run  smooth.  In 
1836,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  he  found  himself 
enamoured  of  Clara,  the  daughter  of  his  piano 
teacher,  the  eminent  Friedrich  Wieck.  The 

112 


SCHUMANN. 


Schumann 

father  did  not  favor  the  suit,  because  he  did 
not  believe  that  a  romantic  dreamer  like  Schu- 
mann, who  had  up  to  that  time  devoted  himself 
to  art  for  art's  sake,  without  much  regard  for 
pecuniary  profits,  would  be  able  to  support  a 
wife  in  comfort.  Schumann  thereupon  tried 
to  improve  his  worldly  affairs  by  transfer- 
ring  his  musical  paper,  the  Neue  Zeitschrift,  to 
Vienna ;  but  the  venture  proved  a  failure  and 
he  returned  to  Leipsic.  The  uncertainty 
whether  he  would  be  able  to  call  Clara  his  own 
lasted  four  years.  Wieck  remained  obdurate, 
although  by  1840  Schumann's  income  amounted 
to  about  a  thousand  thaiers  a  year.  The  case 
was  at  last,  in  accordance  with  the  German 
custom,  brought  before  the  courts,  which,  after 
much  vexatious  delay,  decided  in  favor  of  the 
young  couple,  and  they  were  married  on  Sep- 
tember 12,  1840. 

It  was  during  this  period  of  alternating  hopes 
and  doubts  *  that  Schumann  wrote  his  best 
music  for  piano,  as  well  as  for  the  voice.  Up 
to  the  year  1840  he  had  composed  only  for  the 
piano;  and  the  letters  to  Clara  of  the  years  1838 

*  His  letters  keep  us  informed  regarding  his  heart  affairs.  On 
November  15,  1836,  for  instance,  he  writes  to  his  sister-in-law 
Theresa :  ' '  Clara  loves  me  as  fondly  as  ever ;  but  I  have  resigned 
her  forever."  And  again,  a  year  later:  "The  old  man  is  not  yet 
willing  to  give  up  Clara,  to  whom  he  clings  most  closely." 

113 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

and  1839  contain  abundant  indications  that  she 
was  in  his  mind  all  the  time :  "  I  have  buried 
myself  in  the  dream-world  of  the  piano  and  can 
play  and  talk  about  nothing  else  but  you,"  he 
wrote.  On  February  19,  1840,  we  find  him  in  a 
new  field :  "  I  am  now  writing  nothing  but 
songs,  great  and  small,"  he  says  to  a  friend.  "  I 
can  hardly  tell  you  how  delightful  it  is  to  write 
for  the  voice,  as  compared  with  instrumental 
composition  ;  and  what  a  tumult  and  stir  I  feel 
within  me  when  I  sit  down  to  it.  I  have  brought 
forth  quite  new  things  in  this  line."  Three 
days  later  he  writes  to  Clara :  "  Since  yesterday 
morning  I  have  written  twenty-seven  pages  of 
music  (something  new),  of  which  I  can  tell  you 
nothing  more  than  that  I  laughed  and  wept  for 
joy  in  composing  them."  It  was  the  famous 
song-cycle  Die  Myrthen  (Myrtle  WreatJt)  opus 
25,  which  he  dedicated  to  his  "  beloved  bride." 
In  sending  her  his  "  first  printed  songs  "  (Lieder- 
kreis,  opus  24),  the  following  month,  he  wrote : 
"  When  I  composed  them  my  soul  was  within 
yours.  Without  such  a  bride,  indeed,  no  one 
could  write  such  music — which  I  intend  as  a 
special  compliment."  And  again,  on  May  15, 
he  writes  to  his  bride :  "  Once  more  I  have 
composed  so  much  that  it  seems  almost  un- 
canny. Alas!  I  cannot  help  it;  I  could  sing 
myself  to  death,  like  a  nightingale.  Twelve 
114 


Schumann 

Eichendorff  songs  I  have  written ;  but  these  I 
have  already  forgotten  and  have  commenced 
something  new." 

This  was  his  state  of  mind  throughout  the 
year  when  he  married,  and  the  result  was  more 
than  a  hundred  songs,  including  the  best  he 
ever  wrote.  They  were  published  as  groups, 
or  cycles ;  among  which  must  be  named  (i)  the 
Liederkreis,  opus  24,  his  first  printed  songs,  nine 
in  all,  two  of  which — Ich  wandelte  unter  den 
Bdumen  and  Mit  Myrthen  und  Rosen — are  gems ; 
(2)  Myrthen,  twenty-six  songs,  the  best  being 
Die  Lotosblume,  Lass  mich  Hun  am  Busen  hangen, 
Du  bist  wie  eine  Blume,  and  Der  Nussbaum ;  (3)  the 
Eichendorff  Liederkreis,  to  which  belong  the  su- 
perb Waldesgesprdch  and  the  FruJtlingsnacht ;  (4) 
the  Kerner  cycle,  opus  35,  twelve  songs,  of  which 
the  best  are  Wanderlust,  Frage,Stille  Thrdnen-*  (5) 
the  Frauenliebe-und-Leben  —  Woman 's  Love  and 
Life — (with  the  superb  Er,  der  Herrlichste  von 
At/cn,a.nd  Seit  ich  ihn  gesehen);  (6)  Dichterliebe — 
Poet's  Love — (which  includes  the  best  of  all  his 
songs — Ich  grolle  nicht,  besides  the  admirable 
Im  wunderschonen  Monat  Mai,  Ein  Jiingling  liebt 
ein  Mddchen  and  Ich  hab'  im  Traum  geweinet)  ;  (7) 
the  Liebesfruhling  (Springtime  of  Love)  cycle,  the 

*  Robert  Franz  thought  that  opus  35  included  Schumann's  best 
songs.  He  liked  them  better  than  the  Frauenliebe-und-Leben 
cycle. 

"5 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

best  two  numbers  of  which  ( Warum  willst  du 
And' re  fragen  ?  and  Liebst  du  um  Schonheit?]  as 
well  as  Er  ist  gekommen,  were  written  by  Clara, 
who  therewith  placed  herself  at  the  head  of  all 
song-writers  of  her  sex.  The  suspicion  that 
Schumann  may  have  assisted  her,  is  silenced  by 
the  fact  that  the  first-named  song — the  best  of 
the  three — does  not  suggest  his  style  so  much  as 
Mendelssohn's.  Liebst  du  um  Schonheit  is  more 
Schumannish,  and  the  opening  bar,  which  re- 
curs again  and  again,  is  a  stroke  of  genius 
that  haunts  the  memory  delightfully. 

Clara  Schumann's  edition  of  her  husband's 
songs,  published  by  Breitkopf  &  Hartel,  com- 
prises (with  her  own  three)  two  hundred  and 
forty-eight  numbers.  It  is  in  four  volumes  and 
the  songs  are  printed  in  the  order  of  their  ap- 
pearance. A  critical  study  of  them  makes  it 
only  too  obvious  that  Felix  Drasseke  was  right 
when  he  said  that  Schumann  began  genius 
and  ended  talent.  The  seventeen  songs  I  have 
referred  to  all  belong  to  the  year  1840,  and  so 
do  the  only  others  besides  them  that  seem  to  me 
to  have  the  gift  of  eternal  youth — Sonntags  am 
Rhein,Anden  Sonnenschein,  and  the  famous  ballad 
The  two  Grenadiers.  Among  the  one  hundred 
and  nineteen  songs  of  the  third  and  fourth  vol- 
umes there  is  only  one — Er  isfs — that  rises 
above  mediocrity.  To  understand  this  we 
1 16 


Schumann 

must  know  that  after  1840,  with  a  few  unim- 
portant exceptions,  he  did  not  write  any  more 
songs  till  nine  years  later;  a  time  when  the  cere- 
bral disease  to  which  he  succumbed  in  1856  had 
already  weakened  his  creative  power  and  re- 
duced his  genius  to  talent.  This  terrible  afflic- 
tion enables  us  to  comprehend  the  lack  of  ideas 
in  these  later  songs  and  their  triviality,  which 
otherwise  would  seem  inexplicable  in  a  man  so 
critical  as  Schumann  was.  It  lessens  our  won- 
der at  the  fact  that  one  who  adored  Schubert  as 
he  did,  should  have  been  willing  to  place  before 
the  world  such  utterly  commonplace  new  set- 
tings of  the  Mignon  songs,  which  his  idol  had 
clothed  with  eternal  music ;  and  it  makes  us 
forgive  even  the  chalk-and-water  insipidity 
of  his  Lieder-Album  for  children,  opus  79. 
Hans  von  Billow  was  right  when  he  declared 
that  the  ipsissimus  Schumann  was  the  early 
Schumann,  up  to  opus  50.  Schumann  seemed 
to  have  a  presentiment  of  his  fate  when  he  de- 
clared, after  the  great  song-harvest  of  1840,  that 
he  was  satisfied  with  what  he  had  done  and 
could  not  promise  that  he  would  produce  any- 
thing further  in  that  line. 

It  has  been  assumed  for  a  long  time  that 
Schumann,  coming  after  Schubert,  and  benefit- 
ing by  his  example,  must  necessarily  represent 
a  higher  phase  in  the  development  of  the  Lied. 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

He  is  supposed,  in  particular,  to  have  assumed 
a  more  critical  attitude  toward  the  poems  he 
set  to  music  and  to  have  increased  the  sig- 
nificance and  importance  of  the  piano  part. 
We  have  seen,  however,  that  Schubert's  al- 
leged uncritical  attitude  toward  poets  and  po- 
etry is  largely  a  figment  of  the  imagination ; 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  eminent  historian 
Ambros  has  pointed  out  that  Schumann  is  by 
no  means  impeccable,  but  was  guilty  of  some 
gross  lapses  of  taste.*  One  great  advantage 
Schumann  had.  Surviving  Schubert  by  twen- 
ty-eight years,  he  had  a  whole  new  generation 
of  poets  to  draw  upon  ;  above  all,  Heine,  who 
became  the  favorite  of  lyric  composers  from  the 
moment  of  his  appearance  shortly  before  Schu- 
bert's death,f  because  of  his  terse  form  and  in- 
tense emotionalism.  Schumann  made  a  special- 
ty of  him  ;  but  so,  no  doubt,  would  Schubert 
have  done,  had  he  lived  longer;  and  I  must  say 
that,  much  as  I  admire  the  emotional  realism  of 

*  See  W.  A.  Ambros,  Robert  Franz,  1872,  p.  13  ;  or  his  Bunte 
Blatter. 

f  Challier's  bibliography  of  songs,  which  was  published  in  1886, 
includes  more  than  3,000  settings  of  Heine  poems.  Goethe  comes 
next  with  1,700.  The  other  lyric  poets  lag  far  behind.  Of  Heine's 
individual  poems  Du  hist  wie  eine  Blume  had  had  (at  that  date) 
160  settings  by  different  composers;  Ichhab1  im  Traum  geweinet 
and  Leise  zieht  durch  mein  Gemiith,  each  83 ;  Ein  Fichtenbaum 
iteht  einsam,  76  ;  Ich  weiss  nicht  was  soil  es  bedeitten,  37. 
118 


Schumann 

Schumann's  settings  of  some  of  Heine's  songs, 
I  wonder  at  his  failure  to  be  inspired  by  others 
he  attempted  (which  could  not  have  happened 
to  Schubert) ;  and  none  of  them — not  even  Ich 
grolle  nicht,  one  of  the  most  superb  songs  ever 
written — seems  to  me  quite  so  inspired  as  four 
of  Schubert's  six  Heine  songs :  Der  Atlas,  Ihr 
Bild,  Am  Meer,  and  Der  Doppelgdnger.  There 
is  a  spontaneity  and  an  inevitableness  about 
these  that  Schumann  never  quite  attains,  even 
at  his  best. 

More  incorrect  still  than  the  notion  that  Schu- 
mann "  displays  a  more  finely  cultivated  poetic 
taste  than  Schubert,"  is  the  assertion  made  by 
Dr.  Philip  Spitta,  in  his  otherwise  excellent 
analysis  of  the  characteristics  of  Schumann's 
songs,*  that  "  with  Schubert  and  Mendelssohn 
we  may  very  properly  speak  of  the  piano-forte 
part  as  an  '  accompaniment,'  however  rich  and 
independent  it  occasionally  appears.  But  with 
Schumann  the  word  is  no  longer  appropriate,  the 
piano-forte  asserts  its  dignity  and  equality  with 
the  voice  ;  to  perform  his  songs  satisfactorily 
the  player  must  enter  fully  into  the  singer's  part 
and  the  singer  into  the  player's,  and  they  must 
constantly  supplement  and  fulfil  each  other." 

*  Grove's  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,  vol.  Hi.,  pp. 
411,  412. 

IIQ 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  this  applies  to  Schubert 
quite  as  much  as  to  Schumann.  Already  in  his 
'  earliest  period  we  find  songs  like  Margaret  at 
the  Spinning  Wheel  and  the  Erlking  in  which  the 
piano-forte  part  is  quite  as  important  as  the 
voice ;  and  to  call  the  piano-forte  parts  of  the 
Schwanengesang  and  Winter reise  songs  "accom- 
paniments," is  an  absurdity. 

Reissmann  comes  nearer  the  truth  when  he 
says  that  in  Schumann  the  piano  part  "  gains  a 
predominance  over  the  voice  which  it  has  not  in 
Schubert's  works."  There  are  few  Schubert 
songs  to  which  we  could  apply  what  he  says  of 
many  of  Schumann's :  that  the  vocal  part  is 
"  the  mere  skeleton  into  which  the  piano  ac- 
companiment first  breathes  the  breath  of  life." 
Robert  Franz  once  said  to  Waldmann  that  some 
of  Schumann's  songs,  like  Waldesgesprdch  and 
Dein  Bildniss  wunderbar,  are  "  piano  pieces  pure 
and  simple,  with  a  superadded  vocal  part."  A 
German  critic  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that 
Schumann's  songs  are  "  piano-forte  studies  with 
accidental  vocal  accompaniments."  This  is  an 
obvious  exaggeration  ;  yet  Schumann  himself 
regretted  that  his  musical  ideas  were  usually 
"  piano-thoughts"  ;  and  this  was  due,  no  doubt, 
to  the  fact  that  for  ten  years,  until  he  began 
to  write  songs,  he  had  composed  solely  for  the 
piano. 

120 


Schumann 

Perhaps  we  can  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  by 
saying,  that  whereas  in  Schubert  the  vocal  and 
piano  parts  are  of  equal  importance,  in  Schu- 
mann the  piano  often  predominates.  It  must 
be  remembered,  however,  that  Schumann's  vo- 
cal style,  like  Schubert's,  is  variable.  In  some 
cases  we  have  the  tuneful  simplicity  of  a  folk- 
song ;  in  others  we  have  melodies  "  projected 
in  bold  and  soaring  lines  "  ;  in  many  Schumann 
applies  the  declamatory  principle  of  which 
Schubert  gave  so  perfect  an  example  in  the 
Doppelgdnger.  This  declamatory  style  enables 
a  composer  to  follow  the  poet  word  by  word 
and  the  hearer  to  understand  the  poem  dis- 
tinctly ;  and  it  is  therefore  in  the  sphere  of  lyric 
song  what  Wagner's  "  speech-song  "  is  in  the 
music-drama. 

Though  we  have  seen  that  only  twenty  of 
Schumann's  two  hundred  and  forty-five  songs 
are  of  the  highest  order  of  merit,  these 
twenty  are  so  superlatively  good  that  they 
will  always  insure  him  a  place  in  the  front 
rank  of  song-writers.  Specialists  and  stu- 
dents will,  of  course,  find  interesting  details 
of  vocal  treatment,  harmony,  and  rhythm  in 
many  of  his  other  songs.  Schumann  was  fond 
of  syncopations  and  anticipations,  which  give 
his  rhythms  and  harmonies  a  unique  interest. 
His  pictorial  or  descriptive  power  does  not 

121 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

equal  Schubert's :  he  never  could  have  penned 
the  Erlking.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had  a  hu- 
morous vein,  which  Schubert  lacked,  and  which 
ranges  from  "  students'  joviality  "  to  "  Heine's 
bitterest  irony,"  as  Dr.  Spitta  remarks,  with 
slight  exaggeration.  He  was  particularly  suc- 
cessful in  reproducing  in  music  that  "mixture 
of  humor  and  tragedy  "  which  is  characteristic 
of  Heine.  Several  of  his  songs  give  musical 
expression  to  "that  mirth  of  Heine's  which 
seems  always  on  the  verge  of  tears,"  as  Mr. 
Fuller  Maitland  remarks.*  In  his  use  of 
"germs  of  ideas  to  give  the  impression  of  a 
vague,  dreamy,  veiled  sentiment,"  he  is  also 
unique.  That  he  had  the  mystic  veneration  of 
the  German  romanticists  for  all  the  phases  of 
nature  is  made  manifest  in  many  of  his  songs. 
All  the  best  traits  of  his  genius  are  united  in 
Ich  grolle  nicht.  I  am  aware  that  some  have 
affected  to  sneer  at  this  song  because  it  is  so 
popular.  But  popularity  in  the  case  of  a  com- 
poser like  Schumann,  who  never  stoops  to  con- 
quer, is  a  sign  of  merit,  not  of  demerit.  Indeed, 
Schumann  has  been  more  lucky  than  some  other 
song-writers  in  winning  the  widest  popularity 
for  his  best  effusions. 


*  Page  67  of  his  Schumann,  which  remains  the  best  short  trea- 
tise on  that  master  in  any  language. 


Franz 


FRANZ 

Robert  Franz  (1815-1892)  is  another  com- 
poser who,  like  Schumann,  was  inspired  by  love 
to  write  immortal  songs.  It  came  about  in  this 
way.  He  reached  his  fourteenth  year  before 
anything  had  happened  to  indicate  that  he 
might  be  destined  for  a  musical  career ;  except 
that  in  school  an  irresistible  instinct  had  led 
him — instead  of  singing  in  unison  with  the  other 
children — to  add  an  alto  part  to  the  choral  mel- 
odies ;  an  accomplishment  for  which,  however, 
the  stupid  teacher  actually  and  repeatedly  pun- 
ished him !  In  his  fourteenth  year  he  came 
across  an  old-fashioned  piano,  or  spinet,  in  the 
house  of  a  relative;  and  this,  as  he  relates  in  an 
autobiographic  sketch,  decided  his  fate.  His 
mother  succeeded  in  persuading  his  father  to 
buy  the  instrument  and  to  get  a  cheap  teacher 
for  him.  There  was  little  to  be  learned,  how- 
ever, from  the  teachers  of  Halle,  and  Franz's 
mind  was  moreover  too  individual  to  benefit 
much  from  formal  instruction.  His  main 
sources  of  musical  information  and  culture  were 
the  organ  performances  in  church ;  and  after  he 
had  acquired  some  skill  on  that  instrument  we 
find  him  running  from  church  to  church  to  take 
the  organist's  place  in  playing  a  choral  stanza 
123 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

or  two.  The  works  of  the  great  masters  kin- 
dled in  him  an  enthusiasm  that  led  him  to  try 
his  own  hand  at  composition ;  but,  as  he  was 
ignorant  of  the  theory  of  harmony  and  counter- 
point, the  results  were  such  that,  as  he  after- 
ward remarked,  if  a  young  man  came  to  him 
with  such  productions  he  would  advise  him  to 
choose  anything  but  music  for  a  profession. 

His  father,  though  adverse  to  the  idea  of  his 
adopting  the  career  of  a  musician,  consented  to 
give  him  a  chance,  and  sent  him  for  two  years 
to  Dessau  to  study  with  Friedrich  Schneider. 
He  returned  with  more  immature  compositions 
in  his  trunk,  while  his  efforts  to  secure  a  re- 
munerative position  had  failed.  His  friends 
and  relatives  had  no  sympathy  with  one  who 
seemed  bent  on  throwing  himself  away  on  what 
they  looked  down  on  as  a  "breadless"  art;  so 
he  had  to  seek  consolation  in  the  study  of 
his  favorite  composers.  These  were  Bach, 
Handel,  and  Schubert,  whose  works  he  pored 
over  with  feverish  enthusiasm.  Comparison  of 
their  finished  productions  with  his  own  juvenile 
efforts  disgusted  him  so  thoroughly  with  the 
latter  that  he  threw  them  into  the  fire;  and  for 
a  period  of  six  years  he  had  not  the  courage  to 
write  anything  more.  Despair  had  taken  pos- 
session of  him  and  his  musical  career  seemed 
ended. 

124 


FRANZ. 


Franz 

This  was  the  situation  early  in  the  year  1843. 
A  powerful  impulse  was  needed  to  restore  his 
self-confidence,  to  reawaken  his  creative  energy. 
It  came  in  the  form  of  romantic  love,  which  has 
ever  been  the  chief  source  of  the  fine  arts.  He 
fell  in  love  with  Luise  G.,  the  daughter  of  a 
well-to-do  physician.  She  was  his  pupil,  and  it 
seemed  at  first  as  if  music  had  united  their 
hearts.  But  the  time  came  when  he  found  that 
she  was  not  to  be  his.  It  was  under  the  in- 
fluence of  these  experiences,  hope  followed  by 
what  seemed  an  irreparable  loss,  that  the  songs 
embodied  in  his  opus  i,  and  dedicated  to  this  girl 
were  written.  When  he  composed  them  he 
had  no  thought  of  publication.  They  were 
merely  the  effusions  of  a  full  heart.  But  his 
friends  urged  him  to  get  them  printed,  and  the 
result  is  charmingly  related  by  him  in  a  letter 
to  his  friend  Weicke,  dated  July  18,  1843: 

' '  Within  the  last  six  months  I  have  become  a  composer  ; 
how  it  happened,  I  do  not  know.  So  much  is  certain  : 
nearly  every  day  has  brought  forth  a  new  song.  You  can 
imagine  what  a  blessing  that  may  prove.  Now  my  neigh- 
bors put  it  into  my  head  that  these  songs  were  good.  I  was 
disinclined  to  believe  this  and  therefore  sent  a  number  of 
them  for  inspection  to  Schumann.  He  not  only  made  me 
still  more  puffed  up  by  his  approval,  but  he  gave  them, 
without  my  knowledge  or  desire,  to  a  publisher,  and  they 
have  been  printed.  Just  think  of  it  :  '  Lieder  by  Robert 
Franz,'  etc.  Every  corner-stone  must  laugh  loud  in  its  en- 

125 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

thusiasm !  Were  I  to  tell  you  all  the  flattering  and  gratifying 
experiences  I  have  had  in  reference  to  my  productions,  it 
would  smack  much  of  vanity.  One  thing,  however,  I  can- 
not suppress  in  my  joy  :  Mendelssohn  has  written  me  a  long 
letter  and  told  me  things  which  surely  are  seldom  said  to 
any  one.  He  is  full  of  joy  and  amiability  ...  I  send  you 
a  copy  of  my  songs,  and  expect  a  detailed,  sound  critique  ; 
tell  me  the  truth  bluntly,  it  will  do  no  harm,  and  I  shall  be 
more  grateful  than  if  you  write  me  flatteries  honoris  causa." 

Mendelssohn  had  written  to  him  "  May  you 
give  us  many,  many  more  works  like  this, 
as  beautiful  in  conception,  as  refined  in  style, 
and  as  original  and  euphonious ;  "  while  Schu- 
mann wrote  for  his  Neue  Zeitschrift  a  review 
of  the  twelve  songs  first  issued,  wherein  he  once 
more  revealed  his  keen  instinct  for  discovering 
genius.  He  pointed  out  that  these  songs  mir- 
rored the  new  spirit  in  poetry,  and  illustrated 
the  progress  which  the  Lied  had  made  since 
the  days  of  Beethoven:  "  Genuine  singers,  en- 
dowed with  poetic  taste,  are  required  for  their 
interpretation,"  he  wrote  ;  "  they  are  most  en- 
joyable when  sung  in  solitude  and  in  the  twi- 
light." "  Were  I,"  he  concludes,  "  to  dwell  on 
all  the  exquisite  details,  I  should  never  come  to 
an  end  ;  true  music-lovers  will  discover  them 
for  themselves." 

Unfortunately,  a  musician  cannot  live  by 
praise  alone.  Pecuniary  profit  there  was  none 
from  these  songs.  Indeed,  Franz  once  declared 
126 


Franz 

that  he  had  practically  made  a  present  to  the 
world  of  half  of  his  Lieder.  To  support  himself, 
he  had  to  play  the  organ  at  a  local  church  and 
give  music-lessons  at  the  university,  where  he 
was  also  appointed  musical  director  later  on 
(1859).  In  this  way  he  might  have  earned  his 
bread  and  butter  to  the  end  of  his  life  had  it  not 
been  for  a  physical  infirmity  which  grew  upon 
him  and  finally  incapacitated  him  for  all  work. 
Physiologists  tell  us  that  the  children  of  aged 
parents  are  peculiarly  liable  to  all  sorts  of  de- 
generate nervous  conditions,  such  as  epilepsy, 
insanity,  blindness,  and  deafness.  Now,  Robert 
Franz's  father  had  committed  the  indiscretion 
of  marrying  after  he  had  passed  his  sixtieth 
year ;  and  Robert's  fate  corroborated  the  phys- 
iologists. Before  he  was  thirty  years  old  his 
nervous  system  and  his  hearing  had  become 
somewhat  impaired.  In  1848  he  married  Marie 
Hinrichs,  and  not  long  after  his  marriage  a 
serious  accident  occurred.  He  was  at  the 
Halle  railway  station,  waiting  for  the  train  to 
Leipsic,  when  suddenly  the  shrill  whistle  of  a 
locomotive  sounded  close  by.  It  seemed  to 
pierce  his  ears,  as  he  afterwards  related,  and 
for  a  time  he  could  hear  nothing  but  a  confused 
buzzing.  A  few  days  later  his  hearing  returned, 
but  the  highest  tones  were  gone  and  never 
came  back ;  and  from  that  time  on  one  tone 
127 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

after  another,  down  the  scale,  vanished  forever. 
In  1864  his  ears  were  painfully  affected  if  he 
only  wrote  music.  In  1867  he  was  obliged  to 
give  up  his  positions  as  organist  and  conductor ; 
he  was  suffering  at  that  time  from  such  fright- 
ful hallucinations,  especially  at  night,  that  his 
friends  feared  he  would  become  insane.  The 
year  1876  found  him  totally  deaf,  and  three 
years  later  his  right  arm  became  paralyzed 
from  the  shoulder  to  the  thumb. 

When  I  visited  him  in  July,  1891,  all  but  the 
first  two  fingers  of  both  his  hands  were  para- 
lyzed. He  could  shake  my  hand,  but  not  press 
it.  He  expressed  his  regret  that  he  was  abso- 
lutely deaf  and  that  I  would  have  to  write  on 
a  slate  whatever  I  wished  to  say.  "  America 
again!  "  he  exclaimed,  after  reading  what  I  had 
written.  "  Most  of  my  friends  seem  to  be 
Americans.  I  do  not  say  this  as  a  mere  polite 
phrase,  but  because  it  is  actually  true.  I  assure 
you  that  of  every  six  letters  I  receive,  five  are 
from  America  or  England.  .  .  Other  na- 
tions are  proud  of  their  authors  and  composers 
— look  at  France,  England,  and  Italy — but  the 
Germans  ignore  theirs  till  they  are  dead,  and 
then  they  erect  statues  to  their  memories."* 

*  A  full  account  of  the  very  interesting  talk  I  had  with  him 
appeared  in  the  Century  Magazine  for  June,  1893,  under  the  head 
of  "An  Hour  with  Robert  Franz." 

128 


Franz 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  a  full  knowledge  of 
the  shabby  treatment  accorded  by  contempora- 
ries to  Bach,  Mozart,  and  Schubert  had  not  yet 
taught  the  Germans  to  give  up  their  idiotic 
maxim  that  the  only  true  genius  is  a  dead 
genius.  It  was  only  the  men  of  genius,  like 
Schumann,  Mendelssohn,  Liszt,  and  Wagner, 
that  were  able  to  appreciate  Franz's  genius. 
"  Some  of  the  Berlin  critics,"  he  said  to  me, 
"  have  a  theory  that  I  do  not  compose  my  own 
songs,  but  hire  a  somnambulist,  who  dictates 
them  to  me,  and  that  I  then  hypnotize  him  again 
to  correct  the  manuscript — the  crudest  cut  of 
all !"  The  Brahms  clique  looked  down  on  him  as 
a  "  dilettante  !"  But  it  was  not  the  direct  at- 
tacks so  much  as  the  policy  of  Todschweigen — 
persistent  ignoring — that  hurt  his  feelings  and 
kept  his  tray  (like  that  of  poor  Schubert  and 
his  Leiermann)  forever  empty.  Luckily,  in  1867, 
when  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  his  work,  he 
received  a  pension  of  $150  a  year  for  his  editing 
of  the  works  of  Bach.  Incredible  as  it  may 
seem,  this  pension  was  taken  away  from  him 
ten  years  later,  when  he  was  totally  deaf.  He 
would  have  had  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  life  in  a 
poorhouse  had  not,  in  the  meantime,  generous 
friends  and  admirers  taken  steps  to  keep  the 
wolf  from  the  door. 

The  Leipsic  publisher,  Constantin  Sander — 
129 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

who  knew  that  Franz  had  been  obliged  to  change 
his  residence  repeatedly  to  more  humble  quar- 
ters, but  whose  efforts  to  help  him  by  trying  to 
create  a  greater  demand  for  his  songs  had  been 
unavailing — conceived  the  plan  of  getting  up  a 
subscription  in  behalf  of  the  deaf,  paralyzed 
composer.  The  prime  mover  in  the  affair  was 
Baron  Senfft  von  Pilsach,  the  director  of  a  life- 
insurance  company  in  Berlin,  and  well  known 
as  an  amateur  concert  and  opera  singer.  He 
enlisted  the  aid,  first  of  all,  of  Liszt,  and  subse- 
quently of  Joachim,  Niemann,  Gura,  Vogl,  and 
other  eminent  artists.  Concerts  were  given  in 
various  cities,  and  the  most  gratifying  pecun- 
iary success  attended  them.  Members  of  the 
nobility  and  others  added  their  contributions, 
and  between  November,  1872,  and  May,  1873, 
the  sum  of  thirty  thousand  thalers  (nearly 
$25,000)  was  raised ;  sufficient  to  enable  the 
composer  to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  in  com- 
fort. America  contributed  a  good  part  of  the 
gift,*  which  was  made  available  to  Franz  on 
his  fifty-eighth  birthday. 

*  America,  indeed,  may  be  said  to  have  shown  the  way,  for  as 
early  as  1867  a  concert  was  given  in  Boston  which  yielded  $2,000 
for  the  benefit  of  Franz.  Boston — to  its  eternal  honor  be  it  said — 
was  one  of  the  first  cities  in  the  world  that  had  a  realizing  sense 
of  his  genius,  thanks  to  the  missionary  labors  of  Otto  Dresel,  S.  B. 
Schlesinger,  B.  J.  Lang,  G.  Osgood,  and  others.  John  S.  Dwight 
130 


Franz 

Baron  Senfft  von  Pilsach  had  the  best  of  rea- 
sons for  trying  first  of  all  to  secure  the  aid  of 
Liszt,  not  only  because  of  the  prestige  of  his 
name,  but  because  he  had  previously  exerted 
himself  in  Franz's  behalf,  with  that  noble  gener- 

made  excellent  translations  of  some  of  the  poems  which  Franz  had 
set  to  music,  and  Oliver  Ditson  brought  out  an  edition  in  two  vol- 
umes, admirably  selected,  and  embodying  some  of  these  transla- 
tions— a  selection  concerning  which  Franz  himself  wrote  in  1879: 
"I  am  convinced  that  this  volume  will  succeed  in  revealing  my 
tendencies  to  art-loving  Bostonians  and  others  " — the  value  of 
which  is  further  enhanced  by  foot-notes  quoting  the  characteriza- 
tions of  individual  songs  made  by  Liszt,  Ambros,  and  others. 
Otto  Dresel  (1826-1890),  the  high  priest  of  the  Franz  cult  in 
Boston,  was  a  life-long  friend  of  Franz,  though  he  left  Germany 
in  1848.  Mr.  W.  F.  Apthorp  has  drawn  an  admirable  picture  of 
the  relations  of  these  two  men,  and  of  their  characteristics,  in  his 
Musicians  and  Music- Lovers,  under  the  head  of  "  Two  Modern 
Classicists."  "  Neither  of  the  two,"  he  says,  "  gave  anything  to 
the  world  without  its  passing  through  the  ordeal  of  the  other's 
criticism."  And  they  were  both  extremely  critical.  Dresel 
wrote  a  large  number  of  songs,  but  kept  them  in  his  portfolio  for 
constant  revision  ;  and  not  till  shortly  before  his  death  could  he 
make  up  his  mind  to  publish  a  few  of  them.  In  1892  Breitkopf  & 
Ha'rtel  reprinted  these,  with  some  others,  making  a  collection  of 
twenty  songs,  with  German  and  English  text.  Four  of  these  are 
admirable,  and  will  delight  every  lover  of  Franz.  All  of  them 
betray  that  master's  influence  in  every  bar.  O  Listen,  my  Darling, 
is  rather  too  obviously  inspired  by  Franz's  exquisite  Wonne  der 
Wehmuth,  but  it  is  a  fine  song  all  the  same.  Maudis  as  effective 
for  singers  as  it  is  interesting  musically,  while  Moonlight  and  the 
pathetic  The  Flowers  all  are  Faded  are  songs  that  Franz  himself 
might  have  been  proud  of. 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

osity  which  distinguished  him  from  most  other 
musicians.  It  grieved  his  soul  that  such  won- 
derful songs  as  Franz's  should  be  so  completely 
ignored,  and  he  therefore  made  up  his  mind 
to  help  him  with  his  pen  as  he  had  helped 
Wagner  and  others.*  He  repeatedly  requested 
Franz  to  send  him  some  biographic  data  for  an 
essay,  and  Franz  at  last  consented,  forwarding 
him,  in  1855,  a  sketch  which  takes  up  eleven 
pages  of  the  first  volume  of  the  letters  to  Liszt 
by  eminent  contemporaries.f  Liszt  made  the 
best  possible  use  of  this  sketch  in  an  essay 
which  gives  a  masterful  analysis  of  Franz's 
genius  $  and  overflows  with  enthusiasm.  Franz 
was  deeply  moved  by  it,  and  in  thanking  Liszt 
for  his  services  as  interpreter  and  missionary, 
he  expressed  the  belief  that  even  the  Berlin  and 
Cologne  critics  would  now  sound  their  trum- 
pets in  his  praise.  But  while  Liszt's  essay  and 
other  pamphlets  by  Ambros,  Schuster,  and 
Saran,  which  appeared  about  the  time  the  fund 
was  being  collected,  no  doubt  won  many  new 

*See  my  Wagner  and  his  Works,  vol.  i.,  p.  391,  vol.  ii.,  p.  16. 

f  Brief e  hervorragender  Zeitgenossen  an  Liszt.  Breitkopf  & 
Hartel,  1895.  The  two  volumes  include  twenty-six  letters  from 
Franz. 

\  It  appeared  first  in  the  Neue  Zeitschrift  fur  Musik,  then  in  a 
pamphlet,  and  was  finally  embodied  in  vol.  iv  of  Liszt's  Gesammelte 
Schriftcn. 

132 


Franz 

admirers  for  these  songs,  the  professionals  and 
the  public  at  large  had  no  more  idea  when 
Franz  died  on  October  24,  1892,  that  the  world 
had  lost  the  greatest  song-writer  since  Schu- 
bert, than  Schubert's  contemporaries  had  that 
he  would  be  recognized  as  the  greatest  song- 
writer of  all  time.  Mr.  Apthorp  speaks  of "  the 
exceedingly  few  obituary  notices  on  Franz 
that  appeared  in  German  newspapers  shortly 
after  his  death ;"  and  I  was  amazed  and  dis- 
gusted by  the  same  phenomenon. 

Some  honors  had  indeed  come  to  Franz  in 
the  last  years  of  his  long  life  (as  in  the  case  of 
Schopenhauer,  whose  tirades  against  obtuse 
contemporaries  and  the  policy  of  maintaining  a 
conspiracy  of  silence  he  greatly  relished) ;  but 
it  remains  for  the  twentieth  century  to  do  full 
justice  to  his  genius.  When  Dr.  Hueffer  wrote 
his  volume  on  The  Music  of  the  Future  he  quite 
properly  devoted  a  chapter  in  it  to  Franz. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  the  neglect  he  suffered,  and  his 
physical  infirmities,  Franz  exclaimed  one  day 
that  he  had  been  a  happy  man  nevertheless ; 
for  he  enjoyed  his  creative  work  and  the  edit- 
ing of  the  works  of  Bach  and  Handel,  and 
he  enjoyed  the  love  of  his  family.  He  was 
deeply  attached  to  his  wife ;  and  when  I  vis- 
ited him,  a  few  months  after  her  death,  the 
tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks  as  he  talked  of 
133 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

her  and  showed  me  the  songs  she  had  writ- 
ten*. 

It  was  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  to  Marie 
Hinrichs  that  Franz  had  obtained  the  sanction 
of  the  law  for  the  name  which  he  had  borne 
ever  since  his  childhood.  His  father's  family 
name  was  Christoph  Knauth,  but  as  he  had  a 
brother  who  was  engaged  in  the  same  business, 
and  their  letters  consequently  were  often  mixed 
up  and  created  trouble,  his  acquaintances 
dubbed  him  "  Christoph  Franz,"  and  he  ac- 
cepted the  name.  This  explanation,  which  the 
composer  himself  gave  in  a  letter  to  Otto  Less- 
mann,  disposes  of  the  legend  that  "  Robert 
Franz"  was  a  pseudonym  which  vanity  had  led 
him  to  adopt  by  way  of  indicating  that  he  was 
the  heir  of  Robert  Schumann  and  Franz  Schu- 
bert. This  intimation  used  to  arouse  his  ire,' 
though,  on  the  other  hand,  he  frankly  acknowl- 
edged the  great  obligations  he  was  under  to 
those  composers.  With  the  same  frankness  he 
maintained  that  if  he  had  profited  by  their  ex- 
ample, he  had  also  taken  pains  to  avoid  their 
faults.  And  he  was  right.  Among  his  two 
hundred  and  seventy-nine  songs  there  are  fewer 
mediocre  ones  than  among  those  of  either 


*  They   appeared  in  print    under   her    maiden    name,    Marie 
Hinrichs. 

134 


Franz 

Schubert  or  Schumann.  He  not  only  threw 
his  early  efforts  into  the  fire,  but  throughout  his 
life  he  followed  the  Horatian  maxim  of  keeping 
his  productions  in  the  desk  for  years,  taking 
them  out  now  and  then  and  giving  them  the 
benefit  of  his  ripening  judgment.  With  merci- 
less severity  he  eliminated  everything  that 
seemed  to  him  likely  to  prove  ephemeral,  and 
kept  on  retouching  the  manuscript  as  long  as 
a  single  bar  was  capable  of  improvement  in 
the  vocal  or  piano  part.  The  result  of  this  proc- 
ess was,  as  he  himself  wrote  to  Osterwald  in 
1885,  that  in  many  cases  the  final  product  bore 
but  little  resemblance  to  the  song  in  its  first 
shape.*  In  another  letter  he  wrote  that  a 
critical  consideration  of  his  artistic  develop- 
ment was  rendered  impossible  by  his  method  of 
revising  :  "  My  opus  I  I  consider  no  better  and 
no  worse  than  my  opus  52.  Among  all  the 
collections  there  are  only  three  (op.  23,  27, 
33)  which  were  published  soon  after  they  had 
been  written.  In  all  the  others,  old  and  new 
songs  are  mixed  up." 

When  Franz's  last  song  collections  (op.  51 
and  52)  appeared  in  print  some  fancied  that 
they  discovered  Wagnerian  traits  in  one  or  two 

*  He  liked  to  see  a  clean  manuscript,  and  therefore  rewrote  a 
whole  Lied  whenever  he  made  a  few  changes  in  it.  Some  of  the 
songs  were  thus  copied  two,  three,  and  even  four  times. 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

of  them ;  *  but  Franz  showed  that  these  were 
really  among  his  first  songs,  written  in  the  early 
forties  and  kept  in  the  desk  several  decades ;  so 
that  any  resemblance  must  have  been  a  coin- 
cidence. In  1850  Franz  heard  Lohengrin,  and 
was  so  much  impressed  with  itf  that  he  dedi- 
cated his  opus  20  to  its  composer.  It  is  strange 
that  Franz  should  have  ever  cared  for  Wagner's 
music,  for  he  hated  the  drama,  with  or  without 
music,  went  to  the  theatre  only  once  in  all  his 
life,  and  confessed  that  Mozart's  operatic  music 
unfolded  its  full  significance  to  him  only  in  the 
concert  hall.  In  after  years  he  did  express  his 
dislike  of  the  later  music-dramas  of  Wagner ; 
though,  as  he  had  never  heard  them  (the  year 
of  his  total  deafness  coincides  with  that  of  the 
first  Nibelung  performances  at  Bayreuth),  this 
dislike  was  little  more  than  a  protest  against 
the  great  ado  made  over  opera,  while  lyric  song 
was  so  shamefully  neglected. 

Wagner,  on  his  part,  always  was  a  great  ad- 
mirer of  the  Franz  songs ;  and  when  Franz 
visited  him  at  Zurich,  in  1857,  he  showed  him 

*  See  Waldmann's  Robert  Franz,  Gesprdche  aus  Zehn  Jahren, 
1894,  which  contains  the  records  of  many  interesting  conversa- 
tions with  Franz  during  a  period  of  ten  years. 

f  See  my  Wagner  and  His  Works,  vol.  i.,  pp.  259-263;    and 
further  details   concerning    Franz   and  Wagner   in    the  German 
edition  of  the  same  work,  vol.  i.,  pp.  245-248. 
136 


Franz 

his  musical  library,  which  contained,  besides 
the  works  of  Bach  and  Beethoven,  nothing  but 
Franz's  songs.  "  He  sang  and  played  a  couple 
of  my  songs  for  me,'*  Franz  relates,  "Die  Wid- 
mung  and  Ja,  du  bist  elend — the  latter  being  his 
favorite  song.  And  how  he  did  sing,  declaim- 
ing them  with  the  greatest  pathos,  quite  dra- 
matically. '  You  must  write  operas,'  he  then 
said  to  me ;  but  any  one  who  has  penetrated 
deeply  into  my  songs  knows  that  the  dramatic 
element  in  them  is  naught,  nor  is  it  intended 
to  be  found  in  them." 

Wagner  and  Franz  represent  the  extremes  in 
modern  music,  Wagner  being  the  greatest 
dramatic  composer  of  the  century,  Franz  the 
greatest  lyric  composer  since  Schubert.  There 
are  many  other  differences  between  them. 
Wagner  was  the  most  modern  of  the  moderns ; 
whereas  Franz  gravitated  toward  the  times  of 
Bach,  the  mediaeval  choral,  and  folk-song. 
Wagner's  harmonies  are  chromatic,  his  form 
new  and  irregular ;  while  Franz's  harmonies  are 
diatonic,  his  form  traditional  and  symmetrical. 
And  yet  the  extremes  meet.  There  are  points 
of  contact  between  the  two  masters  which  may 
be  considered  even  more  important  than  their 
differences.  They  are  best  summed  up  in  the 
following  extract  from  one  of  Franz's  letters 
to  Liszt  (dated  September  29,  1855),  which 
J37 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

might    have    been    quite   as   well   written   by 
Wagner : 

"  The  poet  furnishes  the  key  to  the  appreciation  of  my 
works ;  my  music  is  unintelligible  without  a  close  appreciation 
of  the  sister-art :  it  merely  illustrates  the  words,  does  not  pre- 
tend to  be  much  by  itself.  ...  As  a  rule,  my  song  is  of 
the  declamatory  order,  and  becomes  cantilena  [flowing  mel- 
ody] only  where  the  feeling  is  most  concentrated.  The  word 
is  steeped  in  the  tone,  or  forms,  as  it  were,  the  skeleton 
which  the  sound  clothes  as  its  flesh.  Therefore,  it  is  easy  to 
sing  my  songs,  if  the  vocalist  saturates  himself  with  the  poem 
and  thus  endeavors  to  reproduce  the  musical  content." 

Many  of  Franz's  songs  are,  like  parts  of 
Wagner's  operas,  beautiful  if  played  on  the 
piano  alone,  simply  weaving  in  the  vocal  part. 
Liszt  has  translated  a  number  of  Franz's  best 
songs  into  the  most  polished  pianistic  idiom.* 
But  however  delightful  these  songs  may  be  as 
simple  piano  pieces,  to  get  their  full  beauty  the 
vocal  part  must  be  added.  Without  the  voice 
they  charm,  with  the  voice  they  move  to  tears. 
Read  one  of  the  poems  alone,  play  the  music 
alone,  and  then  perform  them  both  together; 
and  you  will  realize  that  poetry  and  music  com- 
bined are  a  greater  emotional  power  than  either 
of  them  alone.  Bearing  this  in  mind,  we  can 


*  See  the  Breitkopf  &  Hartel  edition  of  Liszt's  song  transcrip- 
tions. 

138 


Franz 

understand  the  importance  of  the  fact  that 
modern  lyric  song  has  achieved  "a  fusion  of 
poetry  and  music  which  can  hardly  be  carried 
to  a  higher  pitch  of  intimacy,"  as  Franz  puts  it 
in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Apthorp.  And  thus  we  see 
that,  different  as  were  their  methods  and  aims, 
Wagner  and  Franz  achieved  the  same  results 
in  their  respective  spheres. 

Franz  could  not,  like  Wagner,  write  his  own 
poems ;  but  he  did  the  next  best  thing  in  select- 
ing such  verses  as  were  best  suited  for  a  mar- 
riage with  music — poems  which  suggest  more 
than  they  express.  Judging  by  the  number  of 
times  he  reverted  to  them,  his  favorite  poets 
were  Heine  and  Osterwald,  followed  by  Burns, 
Lenau,  Eichendorff,  Mirza-Schaffy,  etc.*  While 
Schubert  liked  picturesque  poems,  verging  on 
dramatic  action,  Franz  looked  for  the  concise 
expression  of  moods.  As  Liszt  has  said,  he 
was,  above  all  things,  a  "  psychic  colorist."  His 
favorite  subjects  were  love  and  nature  in  their 
diverse  moods ;  and  he  loved  above  all  things 
poems  which  give  expression  to  mixed  moods 
of  joy  and  sadness,  or  else  to  that  melancholy 

*  Details  regarding  Franz's  relations  to  poets  and  poetry  may 
be  found  in  Prochazka's  admirable  biography  of  the  master  (Leip- 
sic :  Reclam),  to  which  I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the  facts  em- 
bodied in  this  chapter  ;  in  Waldmann's  book,  and  in  the  essays  of 
Liszt  and  Ambros. 

139 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

resignation  which  his  own  experiences  had 
taught  him. 

It  is  characteristic  of  him  that  among  the 
poems  of  Heine  he  avoids  those  in  which  the 
sentimental  mood  is  disturbed  by  an  ironic  final 
verse.  In  Burns  he  avoids  the  poems  that 
verge  on  coarse  realism.  "  My  musical  expres- 
sion," he  wrote  to  Liszt,  "partakes  of  the  nature 
of  the  sensitive  plant,  and  avoids,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, all  rude  material  contact."  This  sensitive- 
ness is  a  feminine  trait  in  his  art,  and  there  is 
also  a  feminine  tenderness  in  his  songs  such  as 
we  find  rarely  in  other  composers,  excepting 
Schubert  and  Chopin.  There  is  in  his  songs, 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Apthorp,  "  that  native  rev- 
erence for  purity  and  beauty  that  we  find  in  the 
English  love-poems  of  Elizabeth's  day.  No 
lover  can  be  too  passionate  to-  sing  them,  no 
maid  too  pure  to  hear  them." 

Franz  told  Waldmann  that  Mendelssohn,  who 
was  pleased  with  his  first  songs,  gave  him  up 
after  the  appearance  of  opus  4,  which  showed 
that  he  did  not  intend  to  follow  in  his  footsteps. 
To  Dresel  Mendelssohn  once  said  that  there 
was  no  melody  in  Franz's  songs.  He  meant,  of 
course,  no  instrumental  tune  ;  for,  as  Wagner 
has  pointed  out,  it  was  customary  in  those  days 
to  consider  as  melodies  only  such  vocal  tunes 
as  could  also  be  "  fiddled  and  blown  and  ham- 
140 


Franz 

mered  on  the  piano."  As  the  first  object  of 
vocal  music  is  to  make  the  poem  intelligible 
to  the  hearer,  it  is  to  Franz's  credit  that  he 
avoided  such  "  melody "  in  favor  of  a  more 
declamatory  style.  Louis  Ehlert  has  aptly 
pointed  out  that  Brahms's  songs  "  are  not 
always  planned  for  a  human  voice  with  piano- 
forte accompaniment ;  for  frequently  the  latter 
might  be  replaced  by  an  orchestra  or  quartet, 
and  the  former  by  a  'cello  or  oboe.  This  is 
sometimes  true  of  Schumann,  rarely  of  Schu- 
bert, never  of  Franz ;  and  therefore,  in  this 
respect  (but  not  in  the  matter  of  absolute  in- 
ventiveness) I  hold  Franz  to  be  the  greatest  of 
all  song-writers."  This  is  the  true  vocal  point 
of  view.  At  the  same  time,  there  is  plenty  of 
flowing  melody  in  Franz's  songs,  and  there 
have  been  singers,  like  Lilli  Lehmann,  who 
have  taught  us  that  the  declamatory  song  of 
Franz  and  Wagner  can  be  sung  as  smoothly 
and  insinuatingly  as  the  Italian  bel  canto.  To 
Waldmann  Franz  said  one  day : 

"  If  any  one  understood  the  bel  canto  of  the  Italians  it  was 
Handel ;  him  I  studied  and  took  for  my  model.  Therefore, 
my  Lieder  are  genuine  vocal  music.  Old  Garcia  expressly 
declared  that  of  all  German  songs  mine  are  the  best  suited 
to  the  voice."  * 

*  Emanuel  Garcia,  one  of  the  most  eminent  teachers  of  the  Ital- 
ian method  in  the  nineteenth  century.     Jenny  Lind  was  one  of  his 
141 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

If  there  were  no  flowing  vocal  melody  at  all 
in  the  Franz  songs — which  is  very  far  from  be- 

pupils.  Why  have  the  great  singers  been  so  much  slower  in 
mastering  the  Franz  style  than  the  pianists  were  in  mastering 
Chopin  and  Schumann  ?  Indolence  appears  to  be  one  reason.  As 
Liszt  remarks  sarcastically,  it  would  be  too  much  to  ask  the  lead- 
ing singers  to  enlarge  their  repertory  by  learning  new  songs. 
Concert  singers,  says  Ambros,  hunt  through  the  volumes  of  his 
songs  seeking  for  some  that  end  with  loud,  high  notes  which,  like 
the  old  Roman  vos  plaudite,  are  an  appeal  for  applause.  But  Franz 
avoids  such  claptrap  devices ;  he  is  much  more  apt  to  have  a  song 
end  with  a  quiet  postlude  for  the  piano;  and  that  annoys  the 
singers.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Apthorp,  Franz  refers  to  the  "  bound- 
less vanity  of  professional  singers,"  and  declares  that  "these 
gentry  never  care  for  the  thing  itself,  but  only  for  their  own  per- 
sonal success."  In  most  cases  this  is  only  too  true.  The  concert 
singers  have  yet  to  learn  the  lesson  which  has  been  taught  to  their 
colleagues  of  the  operatic  stage,  who  used  to  scorn  Wagner's 
music  because  they  found  in  it  no  loud  final  notes,  no  embellish- 
ments, no  monopoly  for  the  voice,  which  they  fancied  were  essen- 
tial to  the  securing  of  applause.  They  have  lived  to  learn  that  the 
public  reserves  its  warmest  applause  for  the  Wagner  singers ;  and 
they  will  live  to  learn  that  those  who  attend  song-recitals  are  more 
pleased  with  songs  that  are  in  themselves  beautiful,  like  the  best 
of  Schubert's,  Franz's,  or  Grieg's,  than  with  those  which  merely 
serve  to  show  off  the  singer's  voice.  During  seventeen  years  of 
professional  service  as  a  critic  I  have  hammered  away  at  this  sub- 
ject. One  eminent  singer,  whom  I  had  censured  for  always 
singing  Brahms  and  never  Franz,  begged  leave  to  come  to  my 
residence  and  have  me  point  out  some  of  my  favorites.  I  did  so ; 
he  sang  them  and  was  much  applauded.  Then  he  went  back  to 
Brahms.  Another  famous  singer,  Plunkett  Greene,  once  conde- 
scended to  put  a  Franz  song  on  his  programme.  It  received  more 
applause  than  anything  else  he  sang,  and  had  to  be  repeated. 

142 


Franz 

ing  the  case — they  would  still  be  among  the 
most  melodious  of  all  Lieder,  because  the  piano 
part  is  all  melody.  It  is  nearly  always  poly- 
phonic, that  is,  it  is  melodious  in  every  part — in 
the  bass  and  the  middle  parts  as  well  as  in  the 
treble.  Such  melodic  miniature-work  can  be 
found  only  in  the  scores  of  Bach  and  Wagner; 
and  it  is  largely  owing  to  it  that,  as  Schumann 
wrote,  we  never  cease  discovering  exquisite  de- 
tails in  these  songs.  One  might  say  that  Franz 
was  a  polyphonic  Schubert — what  Schubert 
might  have  been  had  he  known  the  works  of 
Bach  and  studied  them  with  the  same  devotion 
as  Franz  did.  Franz  spent  many  of  the  best 
years  of  his  life  writing  what  are  called  "  addi- 
tional accompaniments  "  to  Bach  and  Handel 
scores;*  and  thus  his  mind  became  thoroughly 

But  he  never  sang  any  more  Franz,  at  least  in  New  York  !  Lilli 
Lehmann  has  set  a  good  example  by  her  Franz  recitals  in  Ger- 
many, which  were  as  great  a  success  financially  as  artistically. 
If  I  have  not  had  much  success  in  persuading  singers,  I  am  glad 
to  say,  on  the  other  hand,  that  I  have  received  many  letters  from 
amateurs  who  have  thanked  me  for  calling  their  attention  to  such 
treasures  as  these  songs — and  this  recalls  what  Franz  once  said 
to  Dr.  Waldmann  :  "What  do  I  care  if  a  song  of  mine  happens 
to  be  applauded  in  a  concert-hall !  I  could  show  you  hundreds  of 
letters  thanking  me  for  the  peace,  consolation,  and  gratification 
my  songs  had  given  the  writers." 

*  A  full  list  is  given  in  Prochazka's  little  book  on  Franz,  pp. 
149-153.  It  cannot  be  too  highly  commended  to  the  attention  of  the 
directors  of  choral  societies.  For  a  clear  account  of  his  object  in 

M3 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

saturated  with  their  styles,  so  that  there  is 
hardly  one  of  his  songs  which  does  not  show 
what  company  he  has  kept.  How  thoroughly 
Bach  had  become  second  nature  to  him  is 
shown  vividly,  e.g,,  in  Lenau's  Der  scJiwere 
Abend,  the  piano  part  of  which,  as  Ambros  has 
wittily  remarked,  looks,  for  all  the  world,  as  if 
Bach  had  sat  down  and  composed  a  Franz  song 
by  way  of  expressing  his  gratitude  for  all  that 
Franz  was  to  do  for  him. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  soil  out  of  which 
Bach's  best  music  grew  was  the  stately  Ger- 
man church  choral;  and  this,  too,  exerted  a 
great  influence  on  Franz's  art.  The  first  en- 
during musical  expression  made  on  his  mind 
was  at  the  age  of  three,  when  he  heard  Luther's 
choral  A  Fortress  Strong  is  our  Lord  blown  on 
trombones  from  the  top  of  a  church  tower,  as 
was  the  delightful  custom  in  those  days  on 
festive  occasions  or  at  funerals.  Chorals  were 
also  regularly  sung  at  his  home  in  the  evening, 
and  he  heard  them  and  played  them  in  church, 
until  they  became  part  of  the  very  tissue  of  his 
mind.  To  this  wholesome  tonic  influence  we 
owe  many  of  the  finest  harmonies  in  his  piano 
parts,  and  such  superbly  emotional  songs  as 

"  filling  out  the  gaps  left  by  the  old  composers  in  their  scores  " 
see  Apthorp's  Musicians  and  Music  Lovers,  pp.  227-249.  Cf. 
Prochazka,88,  103 

144 


Franz 

Widmung,  Leise  zieht  durch  mein  Gemtith  and 
Bitte.  As  a  matter  of  course  Franz  does  not  re- 
tain the  monotonous  movement  of  the  church 
choral,  but  gives  it  the  rhythmic  variety  which 
it  had  originally  before  the  hymn-writers  sim- 
plified it. 

Beside  the  polyphony  and  the  chorals  there 
was  still  another  mediaeval  trait  which  Franz 
assimilated  and  incorporated  in  his  style — the 
church  modes.  As  the  reader  is  aware,  modern 
music  is  based  on  only  two  modes — major  and 
minor.  Like  the  Greeks,  the  early  mediaeval 
composers  had  no  harmony,  but  they  had  a 
greater  variety  of  modes  than  we  have,  that  is, 
scales  differing  in  regard  to  the  position  of  the 
semitones.  These — the  church  modes — were 
found  difficult  to  manage  when  music  became 
harmonic,  and  were  therefore  displaced  by  our 
major  and  minor  modes.  But  there  are  still 
traces  of  them  in  Bach,  and  Franz's  study  of  his 
chorals  and  other  works  *  had  its  effect  on  his 
own  work — quite  unconsciously,  for,  as  he  told 
Waldmann,  he  was  not  aware  of  it  till  a  friend 
said  to  him  one  day, "  Why,  this  song  is  written 
in  a  Greek  scale."  "  If  you  will  look  through 

*  Every  student  of  music  should  own  a  collection  of  Bach's 
chorals  and  play  them  daily  as  the  best  of  all  means  of  educating 
the  harmonic  sense.  They  are  in  the  Peters,  Breitkopf  and  ofher 
editions. 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

my  Lieder"  Franz  added,  "you  will  find  a  num- 
ber of  them,  perhaps  twenty,  especially  among 
the  old  folk-songs,  that  are  written  in  these 
scales."  He  himself,  he  says,  was  not  aware 
that  the  Lotosblume  of  opus  I  is  partly  in  major 
and  minor,  partly  in  a  church  mode,  till  Schaffer 
called  his  attention  to  it.  Others  are  Zu  Stras- 
burg  auf  der  Schanz  (Doric),  Konntst  du  mein 
Aeuglein  sehn  and  Es  klingt  in  der  Ltift  ur alter 
Sang  (both  Phrygian).  But  the  quaintest  of 
these  Lieder  with  an  ecclesiastic  atmosphere  is 
Es  ragt  der  alte  Eborus,  one  of  the  most  delight- 
ful of  all  his  songs,  which  I  have  played  a  hun- 
dred times  and  shall  never  tire  of ;  though  I  fear 
it  will  always  remain  caviare  to  the  general.* 

Notwithstanding  these  mediaeval  features  in 
Franz's  music,  he  is  anything  but  reactionary. 
The  church  modes  have  been  used  by  such 
ultra-modern  masters  as  Liszt  and  Grieg;  and  as 
for  chorals  and  the  polyphonic  interweaving  of 
melodies,  where  can  you  find  these  mediaeval 
traits  more  effectively  used  than  in  the  "  music 
of  the  future  " — notably  Wagner's  Die  Meister- 
singer?  The  simple  truth  is  that  there  were  in 
Bach  important  factors  of  musical  evolution 
which  the  monophonic  school — Haydn,  Mozart, 

*  It  may  be  found  in  vol.  ii.,  p.  44,  of  the  Franz  Album,  Kist- 
ner  edition.  See,  on  these  songs,  Prochazka,  p.  40;  Saran,  p. 
26. 

146 


Franz 

Beethoven — had  neglected,  and  which  re- 
mained to  be  developed  in  the  last  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  after  the  discovery  had 
been  made  that  old  Bach  was  really  a  romanti- 
cist. The  peculiarity  of  Franz  lies  in  this  that, 
while  he  absorbed  this  old  romanticism  more 
completely  than  any  one  else,  he  was  in  other 
respects  one  of  the  most  modern  of  moderns. 
Songs  like  Im  Mai,  Der  Schnee  ist  zergangen, 
Rastlose  Liebe  and  Meerfahrt  show  how  carefully 
he  had  studied  the  pianistic  idiom  of  Chopin — 
a  point  which  previous  writers  have  not  suffi- 
ciently emphasized.  *  Chopin  taught  him  the 
use  of  "  scattered  "  or  broken  chords,  the  tones 
of  which  can  only  be  united  with  the  aid  of  the 
pedal,  the  result  being  ravishing  new  harmonies 
and  tone-colors.  Schubert  would  have  been 
intensely  interested  in  these  new  harmonies. 
The  euphony  of  his  piano  parts  is  much  en- 
hanced by  the  use  of  the  modern  tone-sustain- 
ing pedal ;  but  in  Franz's  songs  the  pedal  is  as 
absolute  a  necessity  as  in  Chopin's  music.  Yet 
what  Chopin  taught  him  was  merely  the  way 
of  doing  it.  He  did  not  copy  his  music,  for 
his  own  imagination  was  inexhaustible  in  the 
discovery  of  new  ways  of  distributing  chords. 

*  His  touch  is  said  to  have  been  similar  to  Chopin's  (Prochazka, 
p.  70).  He  had  not  much  execution,  but,  like  Schubert,  could 
make  the  keys  sing. 

»47 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

To  musicians  this  constitutes  one  of  the  su- 
preme charms  of  his  art. 

There  is  another  harmonic  feature  which 
would  have  interested  and  thrilled  even  Schu- 
bert— his  modulations.  Franz  knew  very  well 
that  "  as  a  rule  modulation  determines  the  emo- 
tional development  much  more  than  the  melody 
does,"  for  these  are  his  own  words,  written  in  a 
letter  to  Liszt.  Some  of  his  most  original  mod- 
ulations occur  toward  the  end  of  Das  ist  ein 
Brausen  und  Heulen.  Of  the  many  other  in- 
stances that  might  be  referred  to,  let  me  call 
attention  to  one  only.  Can  anybody  sing  or 
play  Ich  hab"  in  deinem  Auge*  without  having 
all  his  nerves  tingle  with  delight  when  he  comes 
to  the  harmonies  accompanying  the  words  und 
wie  die  Rosen  zerstieben,  Ihr  Abglanz  ewig  neu — 
especially  at  ewig  (eternal),  where  the  music 
seems  to  come  through  a  sudden  opening  in 
heaven  ? 

Like  Wagner,  furthermore,  Franz  always  had 
an  emotional  reason  for  his  modulations  and  did 
not  seek  them  for  mere  effect — as  so  many  pres- 
ent-day song-writers  do,  merely  to  make  their 
accompaniments  piquant.  The  same  is  true  of 
the  other  factors  of  his  art.  As  Liszt  has  point- 
ed out,  "  the  choice  of  the  key,  of  the  measure, 

*  Printed  in  vol.  ii.,  p.  66,  of  the  Ditson  edition. 

148 


Franz 

of  the  rhythm,  the  figure  of  accompaniment,  the 
conduct  of  the  voices  on  the  monophonic  or 
polyphonic  side,  never  appear  accidental  or  ar- 
bitrary," but  grow  out  of  the  structure  and  the 
mood  of  the  poem.  Hence  it  was  that  he  ob- 
jected so  violently  to  transpositions  of  his  songs 
into  other  keys.  "  When  I  am  dead,"  he  wrote 
to  the  publisher  Sander,  "  I  cannot  do  anything 
to  prevent  this  ;  but  as  long  as  I  live  I  shall 
fight  against  it ; ".  and  Prochazka  says  that 
when  some  publishers  nevertheless  issued  edi- 
tions of  transposed  Lieder,  Franz  protested  vig- 
orously, repudiating  all  responsibility  and  even 
the  authorship  of  the  songs  in  that  form.  The 
reader  will  understand  this  attitude  if  he  will 
transpose  some  of  the  songs — especially  those 
in  five  or  six  flats  or  sharps — into  other  keys. 
It  seems  like  altering  the  colors  of  a  painting. 
"  Transposing,"  he  explained  to  Waldmann, 
"  cannot  do  any  harm  in  the  case  of  songs  in 
which  the  vocal  part  is  everything,  the  accom- 
paniment mere  harmonic  padding  ;  but  that  is 
not  the  case  with  my  songs.  They  are  writ- 
ten for  low  soprano  and  should  be  sung  as 
written."* 

*  Franz  was,  of  course,  right,  yet  half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no 
bread,  and  amateur  contraltos  will  find  these  songs  enchanting 
even  when  transposed,  though  they  may  have  lost  some  of  their 
peculiar  emotional  atmosphere  and  beauty  of  tonal  coloring'. 
149 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

While  Franz  was  preeminently  modern  in  his 
use  of  modulations,  as  well  as  in  his  idiomatic 
piano  style  and  his  declamatory  treatment  of 
the  vocal  part,  there  are  some  other  modern 
aspects  of  music  in  which  he  diverged  from  his 
contemporaries.  Though  he  lived  in  an  age  of 
dramatic  music,  the  dramatic  style  had  no  al- 
lurements for  him.  He  not  only  declared  that 
the  opera  is  "  a  lie,"  but  in  his  own  field  he  had 
no  use  for  such  a  thing  as  a  dramatic  ballad. 
His  songs,  as  we  should  expect  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, are  usually  short  and  strophic,  few 
of  them  being  through-composed  in  the  dra- 
matic manner.  In  other  words,  instead  of  writ- 
ing new  music  for  each  stanza  of  a  poem,  he 
prefers  to  repeat  the  same  music,  introducing, 
however,  slight  changes  in  melody  or  harmony 
where  an  emotional  modulation  in  the  poem 
calls  for  them,  and  these  changes  are  often  of 
striking  beauty.  Like  Chopin,  he  is  particu- 
larly fond  of  introducing  dainty  nuances  in  the 
final  bars  of  a  piece,  and  many  of  his  post- 
hides  are  of  ravishing  effect,  too.  To  Schu- 
bert,  Chopin,  Schumann,  and  Franz  belongs 
the  honor  of  having  abolished  the  monoto- 
nous, stereotyped  manner  of  ending  composi- 
tions which  the  German  "  classical "  school 
had  imported  from  Italy. 

Tone-painting  is  another  modern  trait  with 
.  150 


Franz 

which  Franz  had  little  sympathy.  Compare, 
for  instance,  the  opening  bars  of  his  splendid 
song,  Das  ist  ein  Brausen  und  Heulen,  with 
Liszt's  transcription  of  the  same  for  piano,  and 
note  how  much  more  realistic  the  suggestion 
of  autumn  wind  and  rain  is  in  Liszt's  version 
than  in  the  original.  In  Ach  wenn  ich  nur  ein 
Imniclien  war  (Oh,  were  I  but  a  little  bee)  the 
accompaniment  has  an  almost  buzzing  charac- 
ter, and  there  are  a  few  other  instances  of  re- 
alism ;  *  but,  as  a  rule,  Franz  does  not  try  to 
suggest  visible  things,  but  to  paint  moods,  as 
Beethoven  said  he  did  in  the  "  Pastoral  Sym- 
phony." 

In  one  respect  Franz  labored  under  a  delu- 
sion which  some  of  his  admirers  seem  to  share.. 
One  of  his  favorite  ideas  was  that  whereas 
Schubert  is  always  Schubert,  his  own  songs — 
especially  those  which  resemble  simple  folk- 
songs and  are  set  to  Russian,  Bohemian,  Nor- 
wegian, or  Scotch  poems — sound  like  the  songs 
of  those  countries.  He  was  mistaken.  It  is 
possible  to  discover  in  some  of  Schubert's  songs 
traces  of  the  Hungarian  music  which  he  heard 
during  his  two  sojourns  with  the  Esterhazys ; 

*  Regarding  his  Voruber  der Mai,  he  said  to  Waldmann :  "You 
will  see  that  in  the  accompaniment  there  is  always  a  note  a  third 
above  the  melody.  It  is  as  if  the  melody  went  along  under  a 
leaden  roof  in  accordance  with  the  mood." 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

but  Franz  is  always  Franz,  and  always  German. 
I  cannot  find  any  traces  of  local  or  national 
color  in  these  quasi-folk-song's  of  his;  though 
some  of  them  are  otherwise  charming.  His 
settings  of  the  poems  of  Burns  not  only  do 
not  suggest  Scotch  music,  but  they  are  by  no 
means  among  his  best  productions.  Success  in 
reproducing  local  and  national  color  is  one 
of  the  peculiarities  of  modern  music,  and 
Franz's  failure  in  this  direction  marks  a  third 
trait  in  which  he  differed  from  his  contempo- 
raries. 

While  Franz  thus  has  his  shortcomings  as 
well  as  his  merits,  there  is  a  point  of  view  from 
which  he  ranks  above  all  other  song-writers. 
The  proportion  of  good  songs  to  poor  ones  is 
much  larger  in  his  case  than  in  that  of  any  other 
composer.  Many  of  Schubert's  songs  (partly 
owing  to  the  fact  that  such  a  large  number 
of  them  were  written  before  he  was  out  of  his 
teens)  are  of  interest  only  to  special  students  of 
the  development  of  his  genius ;  while  among 
Schumann's  two  hundred  and  forty-five  songs 
we  found  only  twenty  that  can  be  called  first- 
class.  Franz  wrote  only  thirty-four  more  songs 
than  Schumann,  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine 
in  all ;  but  among  those  there  are  ten  times  as 
many  good  ones  as  in  Schumann's  list.  I  once 
took  vol.  i.  of  the  Ditson  edition  of  Franz  and 
152 


Franz 

prefixed  a  star  to  all  the  songs  in  it  that  em- 
body ideas  which  will  make  them  live.  Count- 
ing them,  I  found  that  I  had  marked  forty-eight 
out  of  the  fifty-five  songs  in  the  book;  and  nine 
of  them  seemed  to  me  so  superlatively  good 
that  I  marked  them,  Baedeker  style,  with 
two  stars.*  This  volume,  to  be  sure,  contains 
selections  ;  but  the  proportion  of  great  songs  is 
not  much  smaller  if  we  take  them  in  regular 
order. 

If  Schumann  was  compelled  to  write  regard- 
ing the  first  twelve  songs  of  Franz,  that  were 
he  to  dwell  on  all  the  exquisite  details  he  would 
never  come  to  an  end,  it  is  obviously  impossi- 
ble in  the  limited  space  at  my  command  to 
even  hint  at  the  beauties  of  the  complete  list 
of  his  two  hundred  and  seventy-nine  Lieder. 
On  many  of  them  I  feel  tempted  to  bestow  su- 
perlatives of  praise;  but,  after  all,  is  it  not 
infinitely  better  to  sing  the  songs  than  to  write 
or  read  about  them  ?  The  wisest  thing  I  can 
do  is  to  advise  every  one  to  get  the  Ditson, 
Peters,  and  Breitkopf  &  Hartel  editions,  go 
over  the  whole  collections,  mark  the  best  songs 
and  sing  them  over  and  over  again.  Those 
who  have  never  done  this  will  marvel  at  the 

*  These  nine  are  Ein  Friedhof,  Widmung,  Im  Walde,  Fur 
Musik,  Das  ist  fin  Brausen  und  ffeulen,  Im  Mat,  Bitte,  Ich  hab 
in  dienem  Auge,  Derjunge  Tag  trwacht. 

153 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

treasures  buried  amid  these  pages,*  as  well  as 
at  the  obtuseness  of  Franz's  contemporaries 
who  had  no  use  for  these  treasures,  and  wanted 
him  to  write  bigger  things — as  if  art  were  to 
be  measured  with  a  yardstick.  He  wrote  few 
songs  during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life. 
Why  should  he  have  written  more,  since  so 
little  interest  was  shown  in  the  large  number 
he  had  already  produced  ? 

BRAHMS 

Hamburg  gave  birth  to  two  of  the  most  pop- 
ular composers  of  the  nineteenth  century — 
Felix  Mendelssohn  (1809),  and  Johannes  Brahms 
(1833).  Brahms,  too,  might  have  borne  the 
name  of  Felix,  for  he  also  was  specially  favored 
by  fortune.  He  was  only  twenty  years  old 
when  Schumann  once  more  took  up  his  rusty 
critical  pen  and  astonished  the  world  by  an- 

*  Some  of  the  songs  are  not  yet  issued  in  the  albums.  The  two 
Kistner  albums  do  not  include  opus  52,  issued  by  the  same  pub- 
lishers in  sheet-music  form,  in  which  I  have  marked  Wolle  Keiner 
mich  fragen  with  two  stars.  A  few  others  of  my  two-star  songs 
are :  Entschluss,  Ich  will  meine  Seele  tauchen  (with  a  wondrous 
tenor  melody  in  the  piano  part),  Es  ragt  der  alte  Eborus,  of  opus 
43  (Kistner,  vol.  ii. ),  Wonne  der  Wehmuth,  Es  hat  die  Rose  sick 
beklagt,  Die  Scklanke  Wasserlilie,  WandV  ich  in  dem  Wald 
des  Abends  (Ditson,  vol.  ii.);  Madchen  mit  dem  rot  hen  Miind- 
chen  (Peters,  vol.  i.). 

154 


Brahms 

nouncing  the  advent  of  a  genius  of  the  first 
order,  born,  Minerva-like,  in  full  armor  and 
destined  to  lead  music  into  new  paths.  The 
letters  written  by  Schumann  about  this  time  * 
(when  his  growing  mental  infirmity  had  com- 
pelled him  to  give  up  his  position  as  musical 
director  at  Diisseldorf)  leave  no  doubt  that  his 
enthusiasm  for  young  Brahms  and  his  works 
was  sincere,  and  not  inspired  by  jealous  eager- 
ness to  find  a  new  rival  to  Wagner,  as  some 
have  suspected.  Nevertheless,  Wagner  was 
responsible,  indirectly,  for  much  of  the  noto- 
riety won  by  Brahms.  Notwithstanding  the 
hyperbolic  indorsement  of  Schumann,  Brahms 
did  not  come  into  vogue  at  once,  and  it  was  not 
till  it  occurred  to  his  admirers  to  pit  him  against 
Wagner  that  he  began  to  loom  up  as  a  big 
man.  The  leader  of  this  movement  was  the 
influential  and  witty  Viennese  critic,  Dr.  Hans- 
lick,  Wagner's  most  rabid  opponent,  who  put 
Brahms  on  his  banner  and  for  decades  bestowed 
on  him  the  most  "  preposterous  overp raise." f 
In  England  another  violent  enemy  of  Wagner 
and  intimate  friend  of  Brahms,  Joachim,  cham- 
pioned Brahms's  cause  and  helped  him  to  a 
temporary  vogue,  which  made  it  appear  as  if  he 

*  See  H.  Reimann's  biography  of  Brahms,  p.  8.     Berlin,  1900. 
f  See  an  admirable  note  on  the  genesis  of  the  Brahms  cult,  in 
J.  F.  Runciman's  Old  Scores  and  New  Readings,  pp.  241-247. 

155 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

had  taken  the  place  of  Felix  Mendelssohn. 
Thus  it  came  about  that  all  those  who  hated 
Wagner — a  large  number  in  those  days — 
flocked  about  the  new  banner.  Brahms  him- 
self, being  endowed  with  a  keen  sense  of  hu- 
mor, knew  that  many  of  his  pretended  admirers 
did  not  understand  his  music  at  all;  and  he 
once  fooled  one  of  these  hypocrites  by  making 
him  roll  his  eyes  in  ecstasy  over  a  vulgar  Gungl 
march  which  he  played  for  him  as  his  own 
composition.  What  with  these  and  his  many 
sincere  admirers,  Brahms  had  a  large  follow- 
ing;  and  when  he  died  in  1897  he  left  two 
hundred  thousand  florins  ($80,000),  the  profits 
on  the  sale  of  his  compositions. 

It  was  a  very  clever  bit  of  strategy  thus  to 
pit  Brahms  against  Wagner,  for  it  gave  him  a 
prominence  which  otherwise  he  would  never 
have  had.  From  any  other  point  of  view  it 
was  palpably  absurd  to  oppose  these  two  men 
to  each  other;  for  there  was  absolutely  no  occa- 
sion for  rivalry  between  them.  They  worked 
in  entirely  different  fields,  Wagner  bestowing 
all  his  attention  on  opera,  while  Brahms  de- 
tested opera  almost  as  much  as  Franz  did,  and 
wrote  symphonies,  songs,  and  chamber-music. 
The  men  properly  to  oppose  to  Brahms  were 
Franz  and  Rubinstein.  In  chamber-music 
Brahms  holds  his  own  against  any  modern 
156 


Brahms 

rival ;  but  his  symphonies,  while  cleverly  con- 
structed, have  not  one  tithe  of  the  ideas  to  be 
found  in  Rubinstein's  Dramatic  and  Ocean  sym- 
phonies, and  the  same  lack  of  ideas  we  note 
in  his  songs,  as  compared  with  Franz's.  Yet 
Brahms's  symphonies  and  songs  are  to-day  on 
all  concert  programmes,  while  Franz  and  Ru- 
binstein are  neglected.  But  it  will  not  remain 
so.  There  was  a  time  when  Hegel  was  so  pop- 
ular that  the  Berlin  students  used  to  crawl 
through  the  windows  to  make  sure  of  getting  a 
seat  in  his  lecture-room ;  while  Schopenhauer — 
who  had  more  ideas  than  all  other  German  phi- 
losophers put  together — was  ignored.  To-day 
Schopenhauer's  works  are  scattered  broadcast 
in  hundreds  of  thousands  of  volumes,  while 
Hegel  has  become  a  mere  name  and  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  get  copies  of  his  works.  Read  Brahms 
for  Hegel,  Franz  for  Schopenhauer,  and  you 
will  have  a  glimpse  of  the  music  of  the  future. 
Ideas  alone  confer  immortality  on  works  of 
art ;  and  genius  might  be  defined  as  the  faculty 
for  originating  ideas.  Form  is  only  the  dress 
for  ideas.  Brahms  was  a  great  dress-maker — 
a  musical  Worth.  No  one  ever  knew  better 
than  he  how  to  cut  and  shape  musical  gar- 
ments and  to  trim  them  with  elegant  varia- 
tions. But  his  faculty  for  originating  ideas 
was  weak  and,  therefore,  he  is  not  an  immortal. 

157 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

The  art  of  dress-making  can  be  taught  and 
acquired,  but  ideas  come  from  heaven.  There 
is  no  formal  defect  in  the  songs  of  Reichardt, 
Zelter,  Zumsteeg  that  could  have  prevented 
them  from  living  always.  They  have  perished 
because  so  few  ideas  were  embodied  in  them ; 
and  for  the  same  reason  Brahms's  songs  will 
perish,  when  the  finish  of  their  dress  no  longer 
attracts  attention.  I  do  not  deny  that  there 
are  many  interesting  details  in  these  songs 
— quaint  rhythmic  combinations,  often  original, 
and  fine  harmonies  which,  however,  can  usually 
be  traced  back  to  Bach,  Schubert,  Chopin,  Schu- 
mann, and  sometimes  to  Wagner.  But  his  mel- 
odic faculty  is  lamentably  weak.  Tchaikovsky 
doubtless  went  too  far  when  he  wrote  *  that 
Brahms  was  altogether  incapable  of  melodic  in- 
vention. I  could  point  out  some  new  melo- 
dies in  his  works,  several  of  them  of  ravishing 
beauty,  but  there  are  not  enough  of  these  to 
atone  for  the  melodic  barrenness  and  triviality 
of  the  others.  No  doubt  there  is  in  his  songs 
plenty  of  broad,  flowing  melody  calculated  to 
please  the  singers  as  well  as  the  audiences-,  nor 
do  I  deny  that  Brahms's  melody  is,  as  Professor 
Niecks  puts  it,  "  distinguished  by  purity,  sim- 
plicity, naturalness,  and  grace."  What  I  main- 

*  Musikahsche  Erinnerungen,  p.  34. 

158 


Brahms 

tain  is  that  it  is  not  new,  not  original.  To  come 
across  a  new  Schubert  or  a  Franz  song  is  like 
seeing  a  new  kind  of  a  flower,  whereas  Brahms's 
melodies  are  only  new  tints  or  slight  variations 
of  flowers  you  have  seen  a  hundred  times  be- 
fore. In  other  words,  his  melodies — and  usual- 
ly his  harmonies  too — are  like  the  musical  small- 
talk  of  Mendelssohn,  provokingly  trite  and  com- 
monplace. I  am  often  amazed  that  he  should 
have  been  willing  to  pen  and  print  such  mean- 
ingless twaddle.  But  he  did  not  write  in  vain, 
for  there  is  a  surprisingly  large  number  of  per- 
sons who  cannot  tell  the  difference  between  mu- 
sical small-talk  and  music  which  embodies  new 
ideas.  Many  even  prefer  the  small-talk.  They 
do  not  care  if  a  melody  is  original,  so  it  be  sing- 
able  and  loud  enough,  and  not  too  much  buried 
in  the  piano  part.  Such  persons  may  derive 
much  pleasure  from  Brahms,"  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  musical  experts  cannot  fail  to  admire  his 
technical  virtuosity,  which  puts  him  on  a  level 
with  the  great  masters. 

Brahms  wrote  one  hundred  and  ninety-six 
songs  for  one  voice,  with  piano-forte,  to  verses 
by  fifty-nine  different  poets.  He  was  careful  in 
the  choice  of  his  poems,  but  unable  to  infuse 
their  moods  into  his  music.  Emotional  charac- 
terization is  a  thing  rarely  to  be  found  in  his 
songs.  He  seems  to  have  but  one  mood  for 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

love,  for  nature,  for  joy,  for  sorrow  ;  and  usual- 
ly the  feeling  is  but  skin-deep.  His  admirers 
often  place  him  above  Schumann  ;  but,  as  Pro- 
fessor Niecks  asks  pertinently,  "  Do  we  find  in 
his  music  Schumann's  glow  of  feeling,  fragrance 
of  poetry;  in  short,  his  magic  of  romance?" 
I  cannot  agree  with  Dr.  Reimann  that  Brahms's 
best  works  are  his  songs.  To  me  they  seem  his 
least  successful  efforts.  He  was  an  instrumen- 
talist by  nature,  not  a  born  writer  for  voice. 
His  vocal  part  is  often  conceived  instrumental- 
ly;  and  like  the  old  "classical"  writers,  to 
whom  he  hearkens  back  so  much,  he  adapts 
the  verses  to  his  music  rather  than  vice  versa, 
as  is  done  by  the  true  song-writer,  who,  as 
Franz  said,  "  makes  the  music  grow  out  of  the 
text."  In  one  thing  only  does  Brahms  surpass 
Franz  :  in  "  liberating  the  melody,"  to  quote 
Dr.  Reimann,  "  from  the  monopoly  of  the  tra- 
ditional four-bar  formation  of  periods." 

The  most  popular  of  the  Brahms  songs  are 
not  always  the  best.  Singers  favor  them  be- 
cause they  show  off  their  voices  to  advantage. 
Perhaps  the  one  most  frequently  sung  is  the 
Vergebliches  Stdndchen,  which  appears  to  me  as 
commonplace  in  its  music  as  it  is  indelicate  in 
its  verses.  The  Sapphische  Ode  and  Feldeinsam- 
keit  are  not  much  better  musically ;  nor  can  I 
understand  the  admiration  which  many  profess 
1 60 


Jensen  and  Others 


for  the  Magellonen  cyclus.  Liebestreu  is  a  good 
song  and  Wie  bist  du  meine  Konigin  is  better  still ; 
but  the  best  by  far  of  all  his  songs,  in  my  opin- 
ion, is  the  Minnelied.  *  Concert  singers  neglect 
it,  because  its  chief  beauty  is  in  the  piano  part. 
But  it  is  an  adorable  song,  which  I  love  almost 
as  much  as  my  Schubert  and  Franz  favorites. 
I  have  often  been  told  by  Brahmsites  that  I 
should  live  to  like  all  his  music  after  hearing  it 
oftener.  But  the  more  I  hear  it  the  less  I  like  it, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  things,  like  this  Min- 
nelied,  which  I  loved  at  first  hearing. 

JENSEN  AND   OTHERS 

Unlike  Brahms  and  Mendelssohn,  Adolf  Jen- 
sen (1837-1879)  enjoyed  less  than  his  just  share 
of  popularity  and  prosperity.  His  short  life 
was  a  perpetual  struggle  against  poverty  and 
ill  health  ;  and  it  is  pathetic  to  read  of  his  great 
disappointment  at  not  being  able  to  hear  the 
first  performance  of  Wagner's  Meistersinger  in 

*  Printed  in  vol.  iii.  of  the  Ausgewdhlte  Lieder  ;  Berlin  :  Sim- 
rock.  German,  English,  and  French  words.  The  German  pub- 
lishers of  Brahms  have  not  yet  issued  any  comprehensive  albums, 
but  only  groups  of  five  to  fifteen.  An  album  of  twenty-seven  se 
lected  Brahms  songs,  with  excellent  English  translations  of  the 
text,  is  published  by  Novello,  Ewer  &  Co.  This  includes  only  the 
earlier  works,  op.  3-19. 

161 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

Munich,  simply  because  the  opera  was  post- 
poned and  he  had  not  the  means  to  remain 
longer.*  His  enthusiasm  for  Wagner  belongs, 
however,  to  a  later  period  in  his  life.  His  first 
thirty-five  songs  were  written  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Schumann — whom  he  adored  and 
corresponded  with — and  of  whom  they  are  often 
reminiscent.  During  a  sojourn  of  two  years 
(1858-59)  in  Copenhagen  he  was  intimate  with 
Gade,  and  thus  came  more  or  less  under  Men- 
delssohnian  influences;  while  Schubert  had 
been  one  of  his  first  favorites.  Though  he 
wrote  many  pieces  for  the  piano-forte,  some  of 
them  of  great  charm  and  worth,  he  was,  like 
Schubert  and  Franz,  led  to  the  Liedby  a  special 
instinct ;  and  the  songs  he  wrote — about  one 
hundred  and  sixty  in  number — constitute  the 
bulk  of  his  work. 

Together  with  other  modern  song-writers,  he 
has  been  accused  of  making  his  piano  parts  too 
difficult  and  too  prominent  in  relation  to  the 
voice ;  but  this  is  an  error.  He  was  a  born 
composer  for  the  voice;  and,  like  Schubert,  he 
could  not  help  making  even  his  piano  pieces 
songs  without  words.  I  agree  with  Mr.  Elson 
in  thinking  that  "Jensen's  songs  will  take 
higher  rank  than  has  hitherto  been  accorded 

*  See  my  Wagner  and  His  Works,  vol.  ii.,  137. 
162 


JENSEN. 


Jensen  and  Others 


them."  Dr.  Riemann  goes  so  far  as  to  say  that, 
"  with  far  more  justice  than  Robert  Franz, 
Jensen  must  be  pronounced  the  heir  of  Schu- 
mann as  regards  the  Lied ;  though  he  cannot  be 
accused  of  being  an  imitator.  ' 

Jensen's  activity  as  a  song-writer  may  be 
divided  into  two  periods,  roughly  representing 
the  years  before  and  after  Wagner  had  taken 
possession  of  his  soul.  One  of  his  songs,  which 
everybody  knows,  is  Lehn  deine  Wang'  an  meine 
Wang  (Oh  !  press  thy  cheek  against  my  cheek). 
This  has  been  charged  with  over-sentimental- 
ity;  but  I  cannot  see  anything  maudlin  i«  it. 
It  is  sound  music,  full  of  healthy  emotion,  the 
melody  effective,  and  the  harmonies  as  stirring 
as  those  in  Schumann's  Teh  grolle  nicht,  to  which 
it  is  not  in  any  way  inferior.  It  is  one  of  my 
favorite  songs,  and  it  should  be  marked  in  a 
song-Baedeker  with  two  stars.  It  appeared  in 
opus  i,  dedicated  to  Louis  Ehlert.  Among 
other  works  of  the  ante- Wagner  period  may  be 
mentioned  the  love-songs  of  opus  6,  embodying 
personal  experiences  and  emotions,  the  seven 
"  Spanish  "  songs  of  opus  4,  and  the  Hans  songs, 
opus  ii,  which  Hans  von  Billow  considered  the 
best  of  his  songs  up  to  1863.  Among  these 
early  songs — and  the  later  ones,  too — there  are 
not  a  few  that  must  be  called  mediocre  ;  but 
the  excellence  of  the  others  atones  for  them. 

163 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

In  the  year  of  the  first  Bayreuth  festival  Jen- 
sen wrote  to  a  friend  regarding  Wagner  :  "  The 
art-work  of  this  man  has  occupied  my  attention 
for  years,  and  almost  absorbed  me."  In  1870 
he  had  secured  a  copy  of  Tristan  und  Isolde, 
and,  as  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "  for  a  week  I  rev- 
elled in  ecstasy  over  it  without  getting  to  the 
end  of  the  first  act."  Concerning  his  own  songs 
embodied  in  op.  40  and  41  he  wrote:  "In 
these  songs  you  will  seek  in  vain  for  the  former 
gushing  Jensen,  who  is  no  more.  Earth  grips 
me  once  more.  My  great,  venerated  master, 
Richard  Wagner,  lies  deep  at  the  bottom  of  my 
heart."  The  Lieder  which  specially  benefited 
by  the  influence  of  Wagner  are  the  Dolorosa 
and  Gaudeamus  groups,  op.  30  and  40,  and  the 
English  songs  of  op.  49-53.  Wagner's  superb 
harmonies  did  not  allure  him  to  copy  them; 
they  rather  served  as  a  stimulus  to  original 
work,  and  assisted  in  the  development  of  a 
dramatic  vein  which  had  always  existed  in  him 
and  which  sometimes  suggests  Schubert. 

This  dramatic  style  is  particularly  noticeable 

in  the  Cunningham  and  Scott  ballads,  included 

'among   his  English  songs,  which  he  wrote  at 

Graz.     These  English  songs  must  be  specially 

commended    to    amateurs    and    professionals. 

They  are  settings  of  seven  poems  by  Burns, 

seven  by  Moore,  four  by  Cunningham,  six  by 

164 


Jensen  and  Others 


Scott,  six  by  Tennyson  and  Felicia  Hemans — 
thirty  in  all.*  By  way  of  illustrating  Jensen's 
conscientiousness,  Niggli  informs  us  f  that  when 
he  composed  these  songs  he  consulted  four 
translations,  besides  the  originals.  He  was  par- 
ticularly proud  of  these  songs,  which  he  re- 
ferred  to  in  1877  as  "  my  last  and  grandest  ex- 
cursion in  the  land  of  song." 

It  was  the  dramatic  impulse  in  Jensen  that 
made  him  usually  avoid  strophic  repetition  and 
compose  his  verses  in  detail.  Another  respect 
in  which  he  differed  from  his  contemporary, 
Franz,  was  that,  as  he  confessed  in  one  of  his 
letters,  he  had  not  much  belief  in  the  special 
characteristics  of  the  keys  ;  and,  therefore,  did 
not  seriously  object  to  transpositions  of  his 
songs  for  a  lower  voice.  He  preferred,  how- 
ever, to  do  the  transposing  himself,  altering  the 
chords  so  as  to  make  them  sound  well  in  the 
lower  position. 

With  Jensen  we  have  entered  the  Wagnerian 

*  Some  of  the  best  of  them  are  included  in  the  12  Lieder  tind 
Gesange  von  Jensen  in  the  Hainauer  edition  (German  and  English 
words).  Particularly  good  are  My  heart  is  in  the  Highlands, 
When  through  the  Piazzetta,  Reno  gently  here,  my  gondolier, 
Slumber  Song,  and  The  Village  Chime.  The  album  in  the  Peters 
edition  contains  earlier  songs — Lehn  deine  Wang,'  seven  of  the 
"  Spanish,"  etc. 

t  Adolf  Jensen,  von  Arnold  Niggli.  Berlin,  1900.  This  is  the 
only  book  so  far  written  on  Jensen. 

165 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

period  of  German  song.  Before  considering 
that  period,  a  word  must,  however,  be  said  con- 
cerning the  minor  composers  of  the  preced- 
ing epoch  which  we  have  been  considering 
in  this  chapter.  Nearly  every  German  com- 
poser wrote  some  Lieder,  even  those  who,  like 
Meyerbeer  and  Raff,  are  known  almost  exclu- 
sively by  their  operas  or  their  instrumental 
works.  Some  composers,  like  Abt,  Proch, 
Kiichen,  Gumbert,  enjoyed  for  a  generation  or 
two  a  great  vogue  with  their  songs,  which 
occupy  a  place  half-way  between  the  folk- 
song and  the  artistic  Lied.  Sentimentality, 
tunefulness,  and  sprightly  rhythms  are  their 
specialties.  Of  the  four  named  Abt  is  the 
best.  His  When  the  Swallows  Homeward  Fly 
is  almost  as  well  known  everywhere  as  Home 
Sweet  Home. 

The  songs  of  such  writers  as  Lachner,  Haupt- 
mann,  Dorn,  Rietz,  Reinecke,  Eckert,  Cursch- 
mann,  Reissiger,  come  for  the  most  part  under 
the  head  of  what  Wagner  called  Kapellmeister- 
musik:  music  such  as  every  conductor  is  ex- 
pected to  write  to  show  that  he  knows  his  trade ; 
though  he  may  not  have  an  idea  in  his  head. 
On  a  somewhat  higher  level  are  the  songs  of 
such  men  as  Kirchner  and  Taubert ;  yet  their 
productions,  too,  were  ephemeral.  They  have 
had  their  day  and  can  never  be  revived,  though 

1 66 


Wagner,  Strauss,  and  Others 

their  best  productions  may  be  saved  from  the 
general  wreck.* 

WAGNER,   STRAUSS,  AND  OTHERS 

When  Richard  Wagner  was  twenty-six  years 
old  he  went  to  Paris  in  the  expectation  of  win- 
ning fame  and  fortune  there,  as  Gluck,  Meyer- 
beer, and  other  Germans  had  done.  The  Pari- 
sians, however,  had  no  use  for  him ;  and  during 
the  two  years  and  a  half  he  spent  in  their  city 
he  was  often  on  the  verge  of  starvation.f  In 
every  way  possible  to  a  musician  he  tried  to 
earn  his  daily  bread,  but  failed  in  almost  every 
effort.  Seeing  that  composers  who  had  not  a 
tithe  of  his  talent  prospered  by  the  writing  of 
songs,  he  tried  his  luck  in  that  line,  too.  The 
result  was  a  setting  of  Heine's  The  Two  Grena- 
diers, Ronsard's  Dors  mon  enfant,  and  Victor 
Hugo's  Attente.  He  hoped  that  these  songs 
might  be  sung  in  salons,  and  perchance  occa- 
sion some  manager  to  ask  him  to  write  an  opera. 


*  A  good  idea  of  the  Lieder  under  consideration  may  be  obtained 
by  securing  one  or  more  of  the  collections  published  by  Breitkopf 
&  Hartel.  No.  290  contains  one  hundred  songs  by  forty  com- 
posers, No.  384  one  hundred  songs  by  forty-one  composers.  Nos. 
180  and  352  are  similar  collections. 

f  For  details  of  the  pathetic  story  see  my  Wagner  and  his  Works, 
vol.  i.,  pp.  65-92. 

167 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

But  no  singer,  manager,  or  publisher  paid  the 
least  attention  to  them ;  and  he  was  finally  com- 
pelled to  offer  them  to  the  editor  of  a  periodical 
in  Germany  for  a  maximum  sum  of  $4  apiece. 

Heine  himself  made  the  French  translation  of 
his  The  Two  Grenadiers  for  Wagner.  Schumann 
has  often  been  praised  for  his  "  happy  thought  " 
in  introducing  the  Marseillaise  in  his  setting  of 
the  same  poem  ;  but  the  happy  thought  was 
Wagner's  ;  his  song  was  composed  in  1839  while 
Schumann's  was  not  given  to  the  world  till 
1844.  Schumann,  however,  assigns  the  French 
patriotic  air  to  the  singer,  while  Wagner  has  it 
only  in  the  accompaniment,  and  his  setting  of 
the  poem  is  in  most  other  respects  inferior  to 
Schumann's.  More  meritorious,  with  some 
characteristic  Wagnerian  touches,  are  the  other 
songs  named.  In  the  year  following  these  he 
composed  some  peculiarly  lugubrious  music  to 
Der  Tannenbaum,  a  poem  by  Scheuerlein,  which 
shows  us  a  boat  on  a  lake,  with  a  boy  in  it,  who 
asks  a  stately  fir-tree  on  the  shore  why  it  looks 
down  on  him  so  gloomily  ;  and  the  fir-tree  re- 
sponds: "  Because  already  the  axe  is  on  its  way 
to  cut  me  for  your  coffin."  * 

More  than  twenty  years  later  (1862)  Wagner 

*  This  song  is  issued  with  the  three  French  ones  in  Ftlrstner's 
edition.  The  five  songs  of  1862  are  printed  (with  German  and 
English  words)  by  Schott. 

168 


Wagner,  Strauss,  and  Others 

composed  five  songs  entitled,  Der  Engel,  Stehe 
Still,  Im  Treibhaus,  Schmerzen,  Trdume.  The 
first  and  fourth  have  some  interesting  modula- 
tions, without  being  otherwise  remarkable.  In 
the  second  half  of  Stehe  Still  we  get  into  the 
midst  of  Tristanesque  harmonies,  while  Im 
Treibhaus  and  Trdume  are  sketches  for  Tristan 
und  Isolde,  resembling  the  sketches  great  paint- 
ers make  for  pictures.  These  two  songs  are 
charming  and  are  often  sung  in  concert-halls. 

It  was  not  by  these  Lieder,  however,  that 
Wagner  exercised  his  sway  over  the  song-writ- 
ers of  the  second  half  of  his  century.  If  Schu- 
bert influenced  the  opera  by  his  Lieder,  Wagner, 
conversely,  influenced  the  Lied  by  his  operas — 
notably  Lohengrin,  Tristan  und  Isolde,  and  Die 
Meister singer.  Many  a  song-writer  of  our  time 
— and  not  only  in  Germany — has  evidently 
studied  the  Tristan  score  (usually  in  Hans  von 
Biilow's  version  for  piano-forte  and  voice)  as 
enthusiastically  as  Jensen  did.  Love  remains, 
as  it  always  was,  the  favorite  theme  of  song- 
composers  ;  and  as  Tristan  und  Isolde  gives  ex- 
pression to  both  the  tenderness  and  the  irresisti- 
ble ardor  of  this  passion  in  a  way  that  no  pre- 
vious composer  had  approximated,  it  was  inevi- 
table that  it  should  help  to  create  a  new  style 
of  love-lyrics.  Die  Meister  singer,  on  the  other 
hand,  showed  the  way  to  a  new  humorous  treat- 

169 


German  Song-Writers  After  Schubert 

ment  of  the  Lied.  Wagner's  influence  on  the 
Lied  is  everywhere  manifested  in  the  adoption 
of  his  wonderfully  original  and  expressive  har- 
monic and  modulatory  system,  as  well  as  in  the 
declamatory  use  of  the  voice  after  his  manner, 
and  in  the  tendency  toward  a  detailed  dramatic 
treatment  of  the  text,  giving  every  word  its 
due — a  tendency  which  reached  its  climax  in 
Liszt. 

Of  the  German  song-writers  who  have  won 
distinction  since  the  death  of  Wagner  the  most 
interesting  and  important  is  Richard  Strauss. 
He  is  still  a  young  man,  having  been  born  in 
Munich  in  1864;  yet  he  is  to-day  the  most 
widely  discussed,  the  most  highly  lauded,  and 
the  most  cordially  abused  of  living  composers. 
This  is  owing  chiefly  to  his  symphonic  poems, 
in  which  programme  music  goes  beyond  even 
Berlioz  and  Liszt,  and  the  orchestration  of 
which  out-Wagners  Wagner  in  complexity 
and  lavish  display  of  color.  As  a  song-writer 
he  has  come  much  into  vogue  in  recent  years  ; 
yet  most  of  his  admirers  will  be  surprised  to 
hear  that  he  has  already  written  about  fifty 
Lieder.  * 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  one  about  these 

*  They  are  beautifully  printed  in  sheet-music  form  Cwith  Ger- 
man and  English  words)  by  Jos.  Aibl  in  Munich. 
170 


Wagner,  Strauss,  and  Others 

songs  is  their  difficulty,  and  the  composer's 
predilection  for  unusual  keys.  The  Vienna 
publishers  who  used  to  object  to  Schubert's, 
piano-forte  parts  and  beg  him  to  use  easy  keys 
with  no  more  than  three  flats  or  sharps,  would 
stand  aghast  at  Richard  Strauss,  whose  pages 
sometimes  look  like  a  .wilderness  of  flats  and 
sharps,  with  the  head  of  a  note  timidly  peeping 
out  here  and  there.  Familiarity,  however,  soon 
breeds  contempt  for  these  accidentals ;  while 
the  songs  grow  more  and  more  beautiful.  The 
art  of  tonal  coloring,  which  is  so  noticeable  in 
the  orchestral  works  of  Strauss,  is  also  applied, 
as  far  as  possible,  to  his  piano-forte  parts.  He 
is  fond  of  surging  arpeggios  sweeping  the  key- 
board up  and  down,  and  producing  harmonies 
so  rich  and  glowing  that  one  often  feels  tempted 
to  keep  the  pedal  down  longer  than  necessary, 
and  linger  on  the  resulting  chord  just  to  enjoy 
its  euphony.  Schubert  was  the  first  who  in- 
dulged in  chords  alluring  by  their  euphony — 
color  for  color's  sake — but  he  never  dreamed  of 
such  orchestral  glories  in  the  piano-forte,  of  such 
arpeggios,  and  commingling  of  weird  harmo- 
nies. Here  are  harmonies  not  anticipated  by 
Bach,  Chopin,  or  Wagner  ;  harmonies  beyond 
the  daring  of  even  Liszt  and  Grieg. 

Some  of  these  harmonies — or  discords — are 
frankly  ugly,  but  they  are  characteristic,  and  we 


German  Song- Writers  After  Schubert 

soon  get  to  love  them  as  we  do  faces  that  have 
more  character  than  beauty.  We  look  for 
something  more  than  beauty  in  a  man's  face — 
why  not  also  in  a  man's  music  ?  Yet  beauty 
there  is,  too,  in  these  songs — sometimes  in  allur- 
ing abundance,  as  just  stated  ;  nor  is  it  confined 
to  the  piano  part.  Elaborate  as  the  piano  part 
is,  it  does  not  swamp  the  voice,  which  stands  out 
as  boldly  as  in  Wagner's  music-dramas  when 
they  are  properly  sung  and  played*  These  songs 
are  not  much  easier  for  the  singer  than  for  the 
pianist,  and  they  are  not  for  bungling  amateurs. 
Serious  music-lovers  may  as  well  begin  with 
some  of  the  easier  ones — such  as  Morgen,  Ach 
Lieb\  ich  muss  nun  scheiden,  Brett  iiber  mein  Haupt 
dein  schwarzes  Haar,  Die  Nacht,  Nachtgang,  Ach 
weh  mir  ungluckhaftem  Manne — which  also  hap- 
pen to  be  among  the  best.  The  appetite  will 
soon  grow  for  what  it  feeds  on,  and  those  who  are 
not  afraid  of  technical  difficulties  will  have  a  rich 
menu  to  chose  from.  As  regards  the  poems,  it 
is  self-evident  that  the  writer  of  the  Zarathustra 
programme  makes  some  novel  experiments  in 
the  Lied  too.  Among  the  songs  in  the  comic 

*  Our  eminent  Wagnerian  soprano,  Mme.  Nordica,  has  also 
shown  herself  an  admirable  interpreter  of  Richard  Strauss.  Her 
singing  of  the  Serenade — one  of  his  best  songs — was  one  of  the 
most  enjoyable  features  of  the  musical  season  1899-1900  in  New 
York. 

172 


Wagner,  Strauss,  and  Others 

vein  I  may  mention  Herr  Lenz  and  Fur  funfzehn 
Pfennige. 

Beside  Strauss  two  other  eminent  contempo- 
rary conductors  have  written  good  Lieder — Felix 
Mottl  and  Felix  Weingartner.  Mottl  has  written 
about  a  score  of  songs,  among  which  the  sombre 
ones  have  found  most  favor.  More  attention  has 
been  paid  to  the  Lied  by  Weingartner,  who  has 
written  already  more  than  seventy  songs — a  con- 
siderable number  for  one  who  was  born  as  late 
as  1863,  and  who  has  also  written  several  operas 
and  orchestral  works.  His  ballads  enjoy  great 
and  deserved  popularity.  Schlanke  Lilien,  Schif- 
ferliedcken,  Fruhlingsgespenster,  Wallfahrt  nach 
Kevlaar,  Post  im  Walde,  are  among  his  best  songs. 
But  the  limits  of  our  space  do  not  permit  of  our 
dwelling  in  detail  on  these  or  on  the  many  in- 
teresting songs  written  by  Raff,  A.  von  Fielitz, 
Eugen  D' Albert,  Carl  Goldmark,  Alexander 
Ritter,  Albert  Fuchs,  Robert  Kahn,  M.  Pliid- 
demann,  H.  Behn,  Hans  Hermann,  Hugo 
Wolf,  A.  Wallnofer,  Hugo  Kaun,  Max  Reger, 
J.  Rheinberger,  Hugo  Reichenberger,  Otto 
Naumann,  R.  Buck,  Bruno  Oscar  Klein,  who 
has  written  some  excellent  songs  and  properly 
belongs  to  the  German-American  group  ;  etc.* 

*  Some  information  concerning  most  of  these  may  be  found  in 
an  article  by  H.  Kretzschmar  '  Das  deutsche  Lied  seit  dem 
Tode  Wagner's,"  Jahrbuch  der  Musikbibliothek  Peters,  1898. 

173 


V 

Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song- Writers 

GLANCING  at  the  table  of  contents  of  this 
book  and  noticing  how  many  more  pages 
are  devoted  to  the  German  song-writers  than 
to  those  of  all  other  countries  combined,  a  read- 
er might  easily  think  that  a  disproportionate 
amount  of  attention  had  been  given  to  the  Teu- 
tons. But  that  is  not  the  case.  As  Liszt  has 
remarked,  "  the  Lied  is  poetically  and  musically 
a  product  peculiar  to  the  Germanic  muse."  It 
is  significant,  as  H.  Ehrlich  has  said,  that  "Lied 
is  the  only  purely  German  word  in  musical  par- 
lance ;  opera,  oratorio,  aria,  symphony,  quartet, 
sonata,  concerto,  are  imported  words ;  but  Lied 
is  quite  German.  It  is  also  untranslatable. 
French  and  English  concert  announcements 
and  criticisms  now  nearly  always  use  the  word 
Lied,  because  '  air '  does  not  mean  the  same  thing 
at  all."  Nevertheless,  many  of  the  best  Lieder, 
or  art-songs,  have  been  written  by  non-Ger- 
mans; but  they  can  all  be  traced  back  to  Ger- 
man influences.  Liszt,  Rubinstein,  Tchaikov- 
174 


Liszt 

sky,  Dvorak,  Grieg,  MacDowell,  and  others, 
probably  would  have  written  no  Lieder  at  all, 
or  quite  different  ones,  had  not  Schubert,  Schu- 
mann, and  Franz  preceded  them  as  pioneers  in 
this  new  and  delightful  field  of  music. 

LISZT 

Were  I  writing  a  book  on  folk-song,  Hungary 
and  some  of  the  Slavic  countries — especially 
Russia,  Poland,  and  Bohemia  —  would  claim 
much  of  my  time  and  space  ;  but  as  this  is  a 
history  of  art-song — and  a  mere  sketch  at  that 
—mention  can  be  made  of  the  principal  com- 
posers only :  Liszt  in  Hungary,  Rubinstein  and 
Tchaikovsky  in  Russia,  Chopin  and  Paderewski 
in  Poland,  Dvorak  in  Bohemia.  Hungary  has 
given  birth  to  many  eminent  musicians,  such  as 
Bihary,  Lavetta,  Czermak,  Erkel,  Heller,  Dop- 
pler,  Remenyi,  Joseffy,  Joachim,  Vagvolgyi, 
and  Goldmark ;  but  the  only  song-writer  among 
them  who  can  be  ranked  with  the  great  Ger- 
mans is  Franz  Liszt  (181 1-1886).  In  his  capacity 
as  song-composer  Liszt  might,  indeed,  have  been 
classed  with  the  Germans,  for  nearly  all  of  his 
Lieder — fifty-one  out  of  about  sixty — were  com- 
posed to  German  texts.  It  is  one  of  the  great 
achievements  of  Liszt  to  have  introduced  Mag- 
yar melodies  and  rhythms  and  gypsy-like  prna- 

175 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

mentation  into  art-music  more  successfully  than 
any  one  else  ;  but  his  instinct  told  him  that 
those  traits  were  more  suitable  to  instrumental 
than  to  vocal  music  ;  and  we  find  accordingly 
among  his  songs  only  two  that  have  a  marked 
Hungarian  flavor  :  Isten  Veled  (Farewell')  and  The 
Three  Gypsies,  which,  also,  like  several  others  ot 
the  songs,  exists  with  an  orchestral  accompani- 
ment and  has  become  tolerably  familiar  in  our 
concert-halls.  The  music  gives  as  graphic  a 
description  as  the  poem  of  the  three  favorite 
Bohemian  ways  of  "  smoking,  sleeping,  and  fid- 
dling life  away." 

It  is  not  known  exactly  when  Liszt  began  to 
compose  songs.  The  best  of  them  belong  to 
the  Weimar  period,  when  he  was  in  the  full  ma- 
turity of  his  creative  power.  There  are  stories 
of  songs  inspired  by  love  while  he  lived  in  Paris ; 
and  he  certainly  did  write  six  settings  of  French 
songs,  chiefly  by  Victor  Hugo.  These  he  pre- 
pared for  the  press  in  1842.  While  less  original 
in  melody  and  modulation  than  the  best  of  his 
German  songs,  they  have  a  distinct  French 
esprit  and  elegance  which  attest  his  power  of 
assimilation  and  his  cosmopolitanism.  These 
French  songs,  fortunately  for  his  German  ad- 
mirers, were  translated  by  Cornelius.  Italian 
leanings  are  betrayed  by  his  choice  of  poems  by 
Petrarch  and  Bocella ;  but,  as  already  intimated, 
176 


LISZT. 


Liszt 

his  favorite  poets  are  Germans :  Goethe,  Schil- 
ler, Heine,  Hoffmann  von  Fallersleben,  Uhland, 
Riickert,  and  others.  Goethe — who  could  not 
even  understand  Schubert,  and  to  whom  Liszt's 
music  would  have  been  pure  Chinese — is  fa- 
vored by  settings  of  Mignon  s  Lied  (Kennst  du 
das  Land],  Es  war  ein  Konig  in  Thule,  Der  du  -von 
dem  Himmel  bist,  Ueber  alien  Gipfeln  ist  Ruh,  Wer 
nie  sein  Brod  mit  Thranen  ass,  Freudvoll  und  leid- 
voll  (two  versions). 

Mignon  was  the  second  of  his  German  songs, 
and  it  is  the  most  deeply  emotional  of  all  the 
settings  of  that  famous  poem.  Longing  is  its 
key-note  ;  longing  for  blue-skyed  Italy  with  its 
orange-groves,  marble  treasures,  and  other  de- 
lights. One  of  the  things  which  Wagner  ad- 
mired in  Liszt's  music  was  "  the  inspired  defi- 
niteness  of  musical  conception  "  which  enabled 
him  to  concentrate  his  thought  and  feeling  in 
so  pregnant  a  way  that  one  felt  inclined  to  ex- 
claim after  a  few  bars,  "  Enough  !  I  have  it  all." 
The  opening  bar  of  Mignon 's  Lied  thus  seems  to 
condense  the  longing  of  the  whole  song  ;  yet, 
as  the  music  proceeds,  we  find  it  is  only  a  pre- 
lude to  a  wealth  of  musical  detail  which  colors 
and  intensifies  every  word  and  wish  of  the 
poem. 

The  King  of  Thule  is  a  ballad  which  would  be 
heard  a  dozen  times  in  our  concert  halls  every 

177 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

season,  if  singers  were  more  enterprising  and 
intelligent  in  ascertaining  what  is  good  and 
what  the  public  would  be  sure  to  like.  Liszt's 
songs  are  neglected  by  most  concert-singers 
because  in  them  the  piano-forte  part  shares  the 
honors  too  much  to  suit  the  notions  of  these 
vain  persons  regarding  the  importance  of  show- 
ing off  their  best  notes.  If  they  would  take  the 
pains  to  enter  thoroughly  into  the  spirit  of  his 
music,  and  try  to  be  one  with  the  pianist  (as 
Vogl  was  with  Schubert),  they  would  find  that 
the  audience — as  it  does  at  Wagner's  operas — 
would  no  longer  discriminate  between  the  voice 
and  the  "  accompaniment,"  but  would  applaud 
the  singers  for  the  fine  effect  of  the  combination. 
To  be  sure,  it  takes  an  artist  to  play  Liszt's 
piano  parts  properly.  Those  who  have  been 
so  lucky  as  to  hear  Mr.  Georg  Henschel  and 
his  wife  play  and  sing  a  Liszt  song  will  never 
forget  the  treat — and  the  lesson.  Regarding  the 
KingofThule,  I  may  add  that  it  is  exceptionally 
effective  and  "  grateful "  for  an  intelligent 
singer. 

All  of  the  six  settings  of  the  Goethe  poems  are 
gems,  and  Dr.  Hueffer  quite  properly  gave  each 
of  them  a  place  in  his  collection  of  Twenty  Liszt 
Songs*  Concerning  the  Wanderer s  Nightsong 

*  Published  by  Novello,  Ewer  &  Co.,  with  Dr.  Hueffer's  ad- 
mirable English  version.     The  selection  is  a  good  one,  but  as  it 

178 


Liszt 

(Ueber  alien  Gipfeln  ist  Ruh),  Dr.  Hueffer  has 
well  said  that  Liszt  has  rendered  the  heavenly 
calm  of  the  exquisite  poem  by  his  wonderful 
harmonies  in  a  manner  which  alone  would  se- 
cure him  a  place  among  the  great  masters  of 
German  song.  "  Particularly  the  modulation 
from  G  major  back  into  the  original  E  major  at 
the  close  of  the  piece,  is  of  surprising  beauty." 
For  composers  of  musical  lyrics  Schiller 
wrote  much  fewer  available  poems  than  Goethe. 
But  Schubert  owed  to  him  one  of  his  finest 
songs — The  Maidens  Lament.  Next  to  him, 
as  an  illustrator  ot  Schiller,  I  feel  inclined  to 
place  Liszt,  who  is  at  his  best  in  his  settings  of 
three  poems  from  William  Tell:  The  Fisher  Boy, 
The  Shepherd,  and  The  Alpine  Hunter.  Liszt, 
like  Schubert,  favors  poems  which  bring  a  scene 
or  a  story  vividly  before  the  mind's  eye  ;  and  he 
loves  to  write  music  which  mirrors  these  pic- 
torial features.  Schubert's  Mullerlieder  seemed 
to  have  exhausted  the  possible  ways  of  depict- 
ing in  music  the  movements  of  the  waters;  but 

includes  only  a  third  of  the  songs,  vocalists  should  also  get  the 
Gesammtlte  Lieder,  published  by  Kahnt  (German  words).  Dr. 
Hueffer  has  written  a  few  good  pages  on  Liszt's  songs  in  his 
Wagner  and  the  Music  of  the  Future  (pp.  277-286),  in  which  the 
elaborate  comparison  of  Liszt's  and  Franz's  way  of  treating  the 
same  poem — Heine's  Am  Rhein — is  particularly  instructive.  A 
detailed  description  of  Liszt's  songs  (fifty  pages)  has  been  written 
by  Bernhard  Vogel,  and  printed  by  Kahnt  (1887). 

179 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

listen  to  the  rippling  arpeggios  in  Liszt's  Fisher 
Boy,  embodying  the  acquisitions  of  modern  pia- 
nistic  technique.  The  shepherd's  song  brings 
before  our  eyes  and  ears  the  flower-meadows 
and  the  brooks  of  the  peaceful  Alpine  world  in 
summer;  while  the  song  of  the  hunter  gives  us 
dissolving  views  of  destructive  avalanches  and 
appalling  precipices,  with  sudden  glimpses, 
through  cloud-rifts,  of  meadows  and  hamlets  at 
dizzy  depths  below.  Wagner  himself,  in  the 
grandest  mountain  and  cloud  scenes  of  the 
Walkiire  and  Siegfried,  has  not  written  more 
superbly  dissonant  and  appropriate  dramatic 
music  than  has  Liszt  in  this  exciting  song. 

Heine  was  a  personal  friend  of  Liszt,  and  as 
a  matter  of  course,  some  of  his  poems,  too,  were 
adorned  with  Liszt's  music  —  six  of  them  — 
Lore  ley,  Am  Rhein,  Vergiftet  sind  meine  Lieder, 
Du  bist  ivie  eine  Blume,  Morgens  steJi  tcli  auf.  und 
frage,  Ein  Fichtenbaum  steht  einsam.  They  all 
abound  in  exquisite  details  of  melody  and  har- 
mony ;  but  I  can  stop  to  speak  of  one  only — 
Loreley — the  first  of  his  German  songs.  It  is 
not  only  beautiful,  musically,  but  it  admirably 
illustrates  Liszt's  general  method  as  a  song- 
writer, and  enables  us  to  look  back,  as  from  a 
height,  over  the  whole  evolution  of  the  song. 

The  charm  of  the  fully  developed  mediaeval 
folk-song  lies,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  close 
1 80 


Liszt 

sympathy  between  the  words  and  the  music, 
both  expressing  the  same  mood.  At  the  same 
time,  when  we  examine  into  the  matter  more 
closely,  we  find  that  the  correspondence  is  only 
a  general  one,  and  does  not  extend  to  details. 
There  is  only  one  melody,  which  is  repeated 
stanza  after  stanza,  no  matter  how  much  the 
story  may  change.  Thus  it  may  happen  in  a 
long  ballad  that  the  same  music  is  used  to  illus- 
trate successively  scenes  of  love  and  hatred,  of 
peace  and  war ;  which,  of  course,  is  inartistic. 
//  is  here  that  the  art-song  improves  on  the  folk- 
song by  adopting  the  method  of  through-com- 
posing :  making  the  music  change  as  the  words 
change.  Schubert  was  the  first  who  realized 
the  full  importance  of  this  method,  and  em- 
bodied it  in  immortal  songs.  But  he  does  not 
often  go  so  far  as  to  resort  to  word-painting — 
making  the  music  follow  individual  words — and 
he  usually  retains  the  concise  strophic  form. 

In  these  respects  Liszt  goes  beyond  Schubert 
and  his  followers,  and  represents  the  extreme 
development  of  the  tendency  which  differen- 
tiates the  art-song  from  the  folk-song.  He  not 
only  makes  the  music  adopt  the  hue  of  each 
significant  phrase  and  word,  but  in  his  best  and 
most  elaborate  songs  he  ignores  the  strophic 
form  of  the  poem — as  Wagner  gave  up  the 
symmetrical  airs  and  other  set  forms  that  used 
181 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song- Writers 

to  make  up  the  operatic  mosaic — and  gives  us, 
in  place  of  that  symmetrical  form,  a  continuous 
musical  plot  from  the  structure  of  which  all  re- 
mains  of  the  original  dance-form  of  the  folk- 
song are  eliminated — for  it  is  well  known  that, 
originally,  all  vocal  music  was  dance-music. 

Loreley  presents  a  striking  instance  of  Liszt's 
method.  It  is  no  wonder  that  his  novel  treat- 
ment of  Heine's  famous  poem  should  have 
aroused  surprise — nay,  indignation ;  for  hith- 
erto the  Germans  had  always  sung  this  poem  to 
Silcher's  popular  air,  which  was  repeated  with- 
out change  in  the  six  stanzas.  Even  that  early 
champion  of  the  "  music  of  the  future,"  Dr. 
Hueffer,  while  admitting  the  beauty  and  ex- 
pressiveness of  Liszt's  song,  declared  that  for 
such  a  poem  Silcher's  simple  tune  seemed  more 
appropriate  than  Liszt's  elaborate  dramatic 
treatment  of  the  subject.  I  cannot  agree  with 
him.  Heine's  poem  is,  indeed,  as  simple  as  any 
strophic  folk-song ;  but,  after  all,  what  gives  it 
its  poetic  value  is  not  its  metric  structure  and 
rhyme,  but  its  subject.  It  presents  a  series  of 
poetic  pictures :  a  complete  miniature  drama  is 
enacted  before  our  eyes  ;  and  Liszt  translates 
this  into  music.  His  pensive  opening  bars  are 
a  prelude  to  the  poet's  query  why  he  feels  so 
sad  to-day,  and  why  a  legend  of  old  times 
keeps  lingering  in  his  mind.  Then  we  get  a 
182 


Liszt 

vision  of  the  calmly  flowing  Rhine,  with  gently 
undulating  music;  and  in  the  twilight  we  be- 
hold the  maiden  sitting  on  the  rocks,  combing 
her  golden  hair.  She  sings  a  song  which  has 
a  strange  melody — a  most  seductive  song  in 
Liszt's  version.  The  boatman  passing  in  his 
skiff  below  is  entranced  ;  a  wild  longing  seizes 
his  soul ;  he  gazes  fixedly  at  the  maiden  above, 
heedless  of  the  dangerous  rocks  about  him ;  and 
her  song  is  to  blame  if  the  waves  at  last  engulf 
him  with  his  boat. 

By  converting  this  miniature  tragedy  into  a 
music-drama,  Liszt  has  done  infinitely  more 
than  Silcher  did  with  his  changeless  air, 
pretty  though  it  is.  He  shatters  the  strophic 
form  ;  but  what  a  wealth  of  beauty  and  emotion 
he  gives  us  in  return !  In  place  of  Silcher's 
unchanging  air  —  a  genuine  folk-song  —  he 
gives  us  several  melodies  of,  at  least,  equal 
beauty  ;  and,  the  most  important  point  of  all, 
while  Silcher's  tune,  like  other  folk-songs,  has 
only  the  simplest  and  most  commonplace  ac- 
companiment, Liszt  makes  use  of  all  those 
harmonic  and  modulatory  acquisitions  which 
enable  the  composer  to  express  the  deeper  and 
more  subtle  emotions,  and  which  constitute  the 
second  and  greatest  advantage  of  art-music  over 
folk-music.  For  these  various  reasons,  though 
each  is  charming  in  its  way,  I  would  not  give 
183 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

Liszt's  Loreley  for  a  dozen  like  Silcher's.  It 
symbolizes  the  difference  between  music  which 
has  only  melody,  and  music  which  adds  to  mel- 
ody the  infinitely  varied  charm  and  emotional 
power  of  harmony.  The  melody  of  folk-songs 
has  delighted  and  influenced  some  of  the  great- 
est composers — men  like  Weber,  Haydn,  Schu- 
bert, Liszt,  Chopin,  Dvofak,  Grieg — but  all 
these  masters  have  written  greater  things  than 
folk-songs,  because  they  had  the  resources  of 
harmony  as  well  as  of  melody  to  inspire  them. 
With  Liszt  the  development  of  the  Lied 
reached  its  end,  apparently.  Other  composers 
have  since  written  beautiful  and  great  songs; 
but  they  are  important  and  valuable  only  as 
emanations  of  individual  genius,  not  as  mark- 
ing new  phases  in  the  evolution  of  song. 

RUBINSTEIN 

When  Liszt's  songs  were  first  printed  they 
were  generally  reviewed  unfavorably,  so  far  as 
they  received  any  notice  at  all.  The  attitude 
of  the  critics  was  summed  up  in  the  advice  of 
one  of  them — that  young  composers  should 
study  them  in  order  to  find  out  "  how  not  to  do 
it."  Anton  Rubinstein  (1830-1894)  was  another 
composer  with  whom  the  Philistine  critics  were 
never  satisfied.  But  while  the  hostility  toward 
184 


RUBINSTEIN. 


Rubinstein 

Liszt  was  due  chiefly  to  his  daring  innovations, 
especially  in  matters  of  form  and  harmony, 
Rubinstein  came  under  the  ban  for  quite  differ- 
ent reasons.  He  hated  the  music  of  Liszt  and 
Wagner  as  the  devil  hates  holy-water;  and  he 
was  a  good  deal  like  Mendelssohn — a  roman- 
ticist with  a  strong  leaning  toward  the  classical 
schools  of  the  past.  Why,  then,  was  he  abused 
by  these  same  critics  ?  Because,  as  they  said, 
he  was  so  careless  in  his  workmanship,  and  did 
not  sufficiently  file  his  pieces.  As  Professor 
Niecks  has  said,  "  he  seems  to  be  always  im- 
patient to  finish  a  thing." 

It  is  quite  true  that  Rubinstein  was  not  a 
flawless  artist ;  and  that,  if  genius  is  the  capacity 
for  taking  infinite  pains,  he  was  not  a  genius. 
But  if  this  definition  were  true,  every  German 
professor  would  be  a  genius.  In  reality,  genius 
is  very  rare  among  German  professors.  But  if 
genius  is,  as  I  have  defined  it,  the  faculty  for 
creating  new  ideas,  then  Rubinstein  was  not 
only  a  genius,  but  a  genius  of  a  very  high 
order.  In  the  realm  of  harmony  he  was  less 
original  than  some  of  his  contemporaries ;  but 
as  a  fertile  melodist  he  has  had  few  equals  at 
any  time.  He  was  a  good  deal  like  Schubert 
in  both  his  merits  and  his  faults ;  and  1  suspect 
that  he  had  himself  in  mind  when  he  wrote  that 
"  God  made  woman,  undoubtedly  the  most 
185 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

beautiful  of  created  things,  but  full  of  short- 
comings;  he  did  not  file  at  her,  being  convinced 
that  her  faults  would  be  annulled  by  her 
charms.  So  it  is  with  Schubert ;  his  melodies 
atone  for  all  blemishes,  if  there  really  are  any." 
Rubinstein  is  right.  The  constant  critical 
harping  or  parroting  on  Schubert's  real  and 
fancied  shortcomings  has  for  a  long  time 
blinded  the  world  as  to  his  very  high  rank. 
Too  frequent  insistence  on  Rubinstein's  unde- 
niable faults  has  had  the  same  effect  in  his  case. 
Here  lies  the  explanation  of  a  great  mystery. 
The  public  loves,  above  all  things,  melody,  and 
Rubinstein  is  brimful  of  melody ;  why,  then,  is 
he  not  heard  oftener  in  our  concert-halls?  He 
is  neglected  there,  I  answer,  not  because  the 
public  does  not  want  him,  but  because  the 
professionals,  with  their  minds  fixed  on  his 
(absurdly  exaggerated)  imperfections,  refuse  to 
perform  him.  I  know  from  long  experience 
that  whenever  his  works  are  given  they  are 
enthusiastically  applauded ;  yet  the  perform- 
ers perversely  hold  back,  intimidated,  ap- 
parently, by  the  critics.  But  Rubinstein's 
day  will  come.  It  would  have  come  ere  this, 
had  it  not  been  for  his  blind  and  foolish  rage 
against  Wagner,  the  idol  of  our  time,  which 
prejudiced  many  and  deterred  them  from  ex- 
amining his  own  works. 

1 86 


Rubinstein 

Songs  being  short,  Rubinstein  had  less  temp- 
tation in  them  than  in  his  larger  works  for 
"  getting  impatient "  and  doing  slovenly  work 
in  patches.  Consequently  it  is  here  that  we 
find  many  of  his  brightest  inspirations.  Not 
all  of  his  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  songs,  by 
any  means,  are  inspired ;  a  considerable  pro- 
portion, as  in  the  case  of  Schubert  and  Schu- 
mann, should  never  have  been  printed.  But  the 
number  of  good  ones  is  large,  and  the  best  of 
them  have  a  charm  which  should  be  proclaimed 
from  the  house-tops.  Everybody,  of  course, 
knows  the  superb  The  Asra,  Yellow  Rolls  at  my 
Feet,  and  A  Flower  Thou  Resemblest;  but  these 
are  no  better  than  a  score  or  two  of  the  others. 
The  most  quaint  and  original  of  them  all  are 
comprised  in  opus  34,  in  which  are  set  to  music 
twelve  Persian  poems  of  Bodenstedt  ("  Mirza- 
Schaffy  ").*  These  are  remarkable  not  only  for 
their  melodic  freshness  and  interesting  piano 
parts,  but  for  their  piquant  Oriental  coloring 


*  They  are  included  (German  and  English  words)  in  Kistner's 
Rubinstein  Album ;  also  in  Augener's  collection  of  fifty-eight  Ru- 
binstein songs  (same  languages).  Seven  of  them  are  in  the 
Novello  Rubinstein  album,  with  Dr.  Hueffer's  admirable  trans- 
lations into  English.  Three  further  volumes  of  Rubinstein's 
songs  are  published  by  Senff.  Attention  should  also  be  called 
to  Rubinstein's  duos,  many  of  which  are  admirable  and  most 
effective  for  private  or  public  performance. 

187 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

as  revealed  chiefly  in  the  unusual  melodic  in- 
tervals. Hans  von  Billow  thought  it  strange 
that  Rubinstein  should  have  been  able  to  con- 
ceive in  his  own  mind  such  "  Persian  "  coloring. 
But  Rubinstein  did  not  originate  these  quaint 
intervals  and  turns ;  they  are  characteristic  of 
Oriental  music  in  general,  the  song  of  the  priest- 
ess in  Verdi's  A'ida  being  a  charming  instance. 
Rubinstein's  Hebrew  blood  made  it  the  more 
easy  for  him  to  assimilate  such  Orientalism.  It 
is  needless  to  name  the  other  gems,  such  as  the 
delightful  Spanish  Ring  Thou  My  Pandero,  or 
The  Dew  Drops  Glitter,  The  Earth  at  Rest,  The 
Angel,  Good  Night,  The  Tear,  Spring  Song,  Morn- 
ing Song,  the  songs  of  opus  72,  etc.  Every  sing- 
er, amateur  or  professional,  owes  it  to  himself 
and  to  his  hearers  to  have  them  in  his  repertory. 
In  my  opinion  a  composer  like  Rubinstein, 
whose  workmanship  is  sometimes  careless,  but 
who  bubbles  over  with  ideas,  is  infinitely  supe- 
rior to  a  Brahms  whose  workmanship  is  flaw- 
less but  who  has  an  idea  only  once  a  month. 

TCHAIKOVSKY  AND  DVORAK. 

The  Oriental  coloring  in  some  of  Rubinstein's 
songs  did  not  save  him  from  being  dubbed 
a  "  German "  by  the  Chauvinists  of  the  neo- 
Russian  school.  Nor  did  Peter  Iljitch  Tchaik- 

188 


Tchaikovsky  and  Dvorak 


ovsky  (1840- 1 893)  escape  the  terrible  accusation 
of  not  being  a  genuine  Russian  in  his  music. 
There  is,  indeed,  less  of  the  national  Russian 
flavor  in  his  music  than  in  that  of  the  neo- 
Russians — Cui,  Borodin,  Rimsky-Korsakoff, 
Balakireff,  and  others.  But  like  Rubinstein, 
he  differs  from  these  neo-Russians  in  having 
genius ;  and  for  that  reason  we  must  give  him  a 
paragraph  here.  Few  are  aware  that  he  wrote 
a  large  number  of  songs — eighty-four,  or,  in- 
cluding sixteen  chansons  enfantines,  just  one 
hundred.*  They  cover  the  whole  period  of  his 
creative  activity,  the  first  group  being  opus  6, 
the  last  opus  73  ;  and,  as  in  the  case  of  most  com- 
posers, the  later  ones  are  much  superior  to  the 
earlier  ones.f  My  favorite  among  them  all 
occurs  in  opus  65.  It  is  as  simple  as  a  folk-song 
— indeed  it  has  the  flavor  of  a  true  Russian  folk- 
song — but  the  harmonic  genius  of  the  composer 
of  the  Pathetic  Symphony  is  evident  in  every  bar. 
It  is  almost  as  sad  as  that  symphony,  and  its  title 
is  Enttauschung  (Disappointment).  Among 

*  See  the  Catalogue  Thematique,  published  by  Jurgenson, 
Moscow. 

f  Most  of  the  Tchaikovsky  songs  are  still  published  singly  or 
in  groups  of  six,  seven,  and  twelve,  by  Flirstner,  Drahtner,  and 
others,  with  German  and  Russian  or  German  and  English  words. 
The  Novellos  publish  a  selection  of  twenty-four,  Englished  by 
Lady  Macfarren,  which  is  a  good  one  to  begin  with. 

189 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song- Writers 

others  I  may  mention  the  Spanish  Serenade, 
Why  so  Pale  Are  the  Roses,  None  but  a  Lonely 
Heart  (very  fine),  The  Song  that  You  Sang  Long 
Ago,  Canary  Bird,  Invocation  to  Sleep,  The  Czars 
Drinking-House. 

While  greatly  admiring  many  of  Tchaikov- 
sky's songs,  I  admit  that  I  do  not  think  that,  as 
a  rule,  he  has  given  us  his  best  in  them ;  having 
reserved  his  most  original  and  pregnant  musical 
ideas  for  his  orchestral  works,  which  to-day  are 
second  in  popularity  to  none.  The  same  criti- 
cism applies  to  another  deservedly  popular  com- 
poser of  our  time,  the  Bohemian  Dr.  Antonin 
Dvorak  (born  in  1841).  His  New  World  sym- 
phony (written  during  the  years  that  he  pre- 
sided over  Mrs.  Thurber's  National  Conserva- 
tory in  New  York)  and  many  of  his  other 
orchestral  works  bubble  over  with  fresh  and 
bright  melody  and  novel  harmonic  progressions; 
but,  like  Wagner,  he  seems  to  need  the  glowing 
color-possibilities  of  an  orchestra  to  stimulate 
his  fancy  to  its  finest  flights.  He  apparently 
discovered  this  himself,  as  songs  are  much  more 
numerous  in  his  early  period — the  opus  numbers 
from  2  to  17  include  twenty-seven  Lieder — 
than  in  the  later  ones.  At  the  same  time  there 
is  much  that  is  attractive  in  some  of  these  songs, 
and  it  is  unfair  to  neglect  them.  In  the  Novello 
album  of  sixteen  Dvorak  songs  special  attention 
190 


Chopin  and  Paderewski 


may  be  called  to  Go  Forth,  My  Song,  Naught  to 
My  Heart  Can  Bring  Relief,  Rest  in  the  Valley,  The 
Cuckoo,  Visions  of  Heaven,  Like  to  a  Linden  Tree.  In 
most  of  his  songs  DvoHk  writes  like  a  German 
rather  than  like  a  Bohemian.  He  laid  on  more 
ethnical  coloring  in  his  Gypsy  Songs,  which  won 
immediate  popularity,  and  in  which  he  uses  the 
quaint  gypsy  rhythms  and  melodic  intervals 
with  great  success.  It  is  a  pity  he  has  not 
written  more  specifically  Bohemian  songs. 

CHOPIN  AND   PADEREWSKI 

Poland  is  preeminently  the  land  of  pianists, 
and  Polish  music  seems  to  us  rather  instru- 
mental than  vocal  in  character,  on  account  of 
its  peculiar  intervals  and  exotic  dance  rhythms. 
Yet  we  owe  to  Poland  a  score  or  so  of  the  most 
delightful  of  all  songs.  When  Chopin  was  a 
boy  he  often  listened  to  the  songs  of  the  peas- 
ants, wondering  who  had  created  them.  To-day 
the  Polish  peasants  sing  many  songs  which  they 
attribute  to  him,  probably  incorrectly.  The  only 
ones  certainly  written  by  him  are  the  Seventeen 
Polish  Songs  embodied  in  opus  74.  Professor 
Niecks  makes  the  amazing  assertion  in  his  work 
on  Chopin  (vol.  ii.,  p.  271)  that  these  songs 
may  attract  the  attention  of  the  lover  and  stu- 
dent of  Chopin's  music,  but  that  they  add 

191 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

"  little  value  to  Chopin's  musical  legacy;  "  and 
he  refers  to  Nos.  i,  5,  8,  4,  and  12,  as  being  de- 
cidedly commonplace.  I  say,  on  the  contrary 
that  if  The  Maiden  s  Wish  and  the  Bacchanal  are 
commonplace,  then  every  folk-song  ever  written 
in  any  country  is  commonplace.  More  spon- 
taneous, fresh,  charming  folk-melodies  were 
never  conceived  anywhere.  No.  5,  What  a 
Maiden  Likes  has,  I  admit,  little  merit ;  nor  do  I 
care  for  No.  7,  The  Messenger.  But  No.  8,  My 
Beloved  is  not  uninteresting,  and  in  No.  12  (My 
Delights)  we  have  one  of  the  most  impassioned 
and  dramatic  lyrics  ever  created.  It  is  one  of 
my  favorite  songs ;  and  I  once  saw  a  young  lady 
faint,  overcome  by  the  intense  emotion  em- 
bodied in  it.  In  all  music,  lyric  or  dramatic, 
the  thrill  of  a  kiss  has  never  been  expressed  so 
ecstatically  as  in  the  twelve  bars  included  in 
the  cresc.  sempre piu  accelerando* 

*  It  would  seem  incredible  that  any  one  should  pronounce  such 
a  master-song  "  decidedly  commonplace,"  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  Niecks's  two  volumes  are  full  of  such  preposterous  opinions. 
It  is,  indeed,  a  calamity  that  the  task  of  writing  the  most  elaborate 
work  on  the  life  and  compositions  of  Chopin  should  have  fallen 
into  such  hands.  His  book  will  have  to  be  superseded  by  another 
of  the  same  scope  ;  the  sooner  the  better.  Mr.  Huneker's  Chopin  : 
The  Man  and  His  Music,  is  much  more  commendable ;  but  it 
gives  a  mere  sketch  of  the  life,  and  there  is,  therefore,  room  for  an- 
other and  exhaustive  volume.  I  may  add  that  Liszt — whose  taste 
in  making  selections  from  the  works  of  others  is  universally  ad- 

192 


Chopin  and  Paderewski 


Though  there  are  only  seventeen  Chopin 
song's,  their  emotional  range  is  wider  than  that 
of  not  a  few  composers  who  have  written  more 
than  a  hundred.  Some,  as  just  stated,  are  as 
simple  as  folk-songs.  To  this  class  belongs,  also, 
No.  2,  Spring.  The  plaintive  No.  3  is  less  tune- 
ful, but  nearly  as  simple.  The  Bacchanal  is  as 
full  of  animal  spirits  as  a  German  students'  song, 
and  the  accompaniment  is  harmonically  inter- 
esting.  More  delightful  still  is  the  accompani- 
ment of  No.  6,  especially  on  the  last  page ;  while 
the  melody  has  the  flow,  breadth,  and  variety 
of  Schubert  at  his  best.  Broadly  melodious, 
too,  is  No.  8 ;  while  No.  9,  though  entitled  A 
Melody,  gives  more  the  impression  of  an  ardent, 
pathetic  recitative  with  an  accompaniment  that 
Schubert  or  Wagner  could  not  have  made  more 
dramatic.  Highly  dramatic,  also,  is  the  treat- 
ment of  No.  15,  representing  a  storm  in  the  for- 
est, and  of  No.  10,  The  Horseman  before  the  Bat- 
tle. In  great  contrast  to  these  is  No.  14,  The 
Ring,  in  slow  waltz-time  —  perhaps  the  most 
popular  of  these  songs.  There  is  national  color 
and  realism  in  the  Lithuanian  Song,  No.  16;  No. 
13  is  appropriately  named  Melancholy.  There 
is  melancholy,  too,  and  beautiful  melody  in  No. 

mired,  even  by  those  who  do  not  like  his  own  music — included  in 
his  transcriptions  for  piano  solo  of  six  of  Chopin's  songs  two  of 
those  which  Niecks  sneers  at — My  Delights,  and  the  Bacchanal. 

193 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song- Writers 

1 1 ;  but  the  music  does  not  match  the  grewsome- 
ness  of  the  text  —  Two  corpses:  one  a  soldier, 
dying  in  the  forest  amid  the  croaking  of  crows 
and  the  howling  of  wolves ;  the  other  his  sweet- 
heart, dying  at  the  same  time  in  the  town  to  the 
booming  sound  of  the  church-bell.  What  this 
song  lacks  in  agony  may  be  found  in  the  last  of 
the  set  of  seventeen,  Poland's  Dirge,  perhaps 
the  most  funereal  song  in  existence,  and  at  the 
same  time  full  of  fascinating  musical  detail. 
The  poems  for  these  songs  were  contributed  by 
several  of  Chopin's  Polish  friends. 

If  Chopin's  charming  songs  are  not  so  widely 
known  even  now — half  a  century  after  his  death 
— as  they  deserve  to  be,  this  is  due  in  part  to  the 
peculiar  attitude  of  the  world  in  regard  to  spe- 
cialism. If  a  man  is  expert  and  great  in  one 
thing,  it  is  difficult  to  persuade  people  that  he 
can  be  great  in  some  other  line  too.  The  world- 
wide renown  of  Liszt  and  Rubinstein  as  pia- 
nists stood  in  the  way  of  their  being  accepted  as 
composers.  Chopin  soon  gave  up  playing  in 
public  and  became  famed  as  a  composer — for 
the  piano  alone,  however,  wherefore  his  songs 
were  overlooked,  though  they  are  stamped  with 
the  same  traits  of  genius  as  his  mazurkas,  valses, 
and  polonaises. 

Like  his  great  predecessors,  Ignace  Paderew- 
ski  (born  in  1860)  is  destined  to  suffer  for  a  time 
194 


Chopin  and  Paderewski 


as  a  composer,  because  of  his  great  fame  and 
popularity  as  a  pianist.  Yet  he  has  written  a 
number  of  beautiful  and  characteristic  pieces 
for  piano — as  well  as  for  the  orchestra,  which 
his  countryman,  Chopin,  neglected.  His  op- 
era has  not  been  produced  at  the  date  of  this 
writing,  but  he  has  composed  half  a  dozen  songs 
(opus  1 8),  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
him  play  on  my  piano  before  they  were  printed. 
Though  he  simply  hummed  the  melody,  the 
songs  seemed  strangely  beautiful  to  me.  It  is 
said  that  when  the  famous  English  tenor,  Mr. 
Lloyd,  was  asked  to  sing  these  new  songs  in 
London,  he  hesitated  at  first ;  no  doubt  from 
fear  that  such  a  pre-eminent  specialist  at  the 
piano  would  not  know  how  to  write  for  the 
voice.  But  as  soon  as  he  had  glanced  at  them 
he  gladly  accepted  the  invitation,  and  they  were 
much  relished  by  the  audience. 

The  poems  which  Paderewski  selected  for 
these  six  songs  are  by  Mickiewitz.*  In  the  first 
of  them — My  Tears  Were  Flowing — there  is  less  of 
the  Polish  atmosphere  than  in  most  of  his  music. 
In  the  second,  Wandering  Along,  there  is  more 
of  it,  especially  in  the  prelude,  which  is  almost 
as  quaint  as  his  delightful  Cracovienne.  No.  3, 

*  In  the  edition  printed  by  Edward  Schuberth  &  Co. ,  New  York, 
the  English  version  is  by  Mrs.  Helen  D.  Tretbar. 

195 


Hungarian  and  Slavic  Song-Writers 

My  Sweetest  Darling,  is  a  setting  of  the  same 
poem  which  Chopin  used  for  My  Delights. 
There  is  less  eagerness  in  the  osculatory  climax 
of  the  new  setting;  but  it  is  a  charming  love- 
song  nevertheless.  In  Over  the  Waters,  which 
shows  us  rocks,  clouds,  flashes  of  lightning,  mir- 
rored in  the  water,  the  composer  relies  on  pure- 
ly musical  means,  without  attempting  word- 
painting  after  the  manner  of  Liszt.  Ah  !  What 
Tortures  has  less  the  character  of  personal  grief 
than  of  that  national  zal  peculiar  to  Poles  and 
embodied  in  their  mazurkas.  This  melodious 
and  simple  song  might  indeed  be  called  a  ma- 
zurka for  the  voice.  Mr.  Lloyd,  at  the  concert 
referred  to,  recognizing  its  popular  character, 
used  it  as  an  encore  piece.  Another  dainty 
love-song,  in  the  Anacreontic  style —  Were  I  a 
Ribbon — concludes  this  first  group  of  six;  which 
it  is  to  be  hoped  will  be  followed  by  many 
others. 


196 


VI 

Scandinavian  Song- Writers 

AFTER  Switzerland,  Norway  is  the  favorite 
playground  of  European  tourists;  but 
while  Switzerland  has  done  nothing  of  impor- 
tance for  music,  Norway  has  produced  a  num- 
ber of  original  composers ;  including  Grieg, 
Kjerulf,  Nordraak,  Svendsen,  Tellefsen,  Selmer, 
Schjelderup,  Sinding,  whose  works  seem  to 
mirror  the  mountains  and  fjords,  the  meadows 
and  forests,  of  their  picturesque  country.  If 
we  add  to  these  the  Swedish  Lindblad,  Soder- 
mann,  Emil  Sjogren,  and  the  Danish  Hart- 
mann,  Heise,  Horneman,  Gade,  and  Lange- 
M uller,  we  have  a  notable  list.  It  would  be 
interesting  to  examine  the  songs  of  some  of 
these,  as  there  is  much  to  commend  in  them  ; 
but  the  exigencies  of  space  compel  me  to  con- 
fine myself  to  the  king  of  the  Scandinavian 
composers,  Edvard  Grieg  (born  1843).* 

*  Unlike  some  other  composers  of  the  first  rank,  Grieg  has  a 
warm  sympathy  for  his  younger  contemporaries,  notably  Sinding, 
Lange-Mttller,  and  Sjogren.  To  Binding's  songs  he  attaches 

«97 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


GRIEG 

In  telling  the  story  of  Schubert's  life  I  stated 
that  the  charm  of  his  music — his  spontaneous 
melodies  and  emotional  harmonies — cured  the 
operatic  tenor  Vogl  of  the  tired  feeling  which 
is  so  apt  to  overcome  professional  musicians, 
and  gave  him  a  new  interest  and  enthusiasm 
for  his  art.  In  1843  there  was  born  at  Bergen, 
Norway,  another  song-writer  who  has  the  gift 
of  toning  up  the  most  blast  musician.  A  trip 
through  Grieg's  music  is  like  a  tour  of  Norway 
for  one  who  has  never  seen  the  scenery  peculiar 
to  that  country ;  and  it  has  the  same  bracing, 
stimulating  eSect  on  the  nerves,  the  brain,  and 
the  heart.  When  I  had  revelled  in  the  music 
of  Chopin  and  Wagner,  Liszt  and  Franz,  to  the 
point  of  intoxication,  I  fancied  that  the  last 
word  had  been  said  in  harmony  and  in  melody  ; 
when  lo!  I  came  across  the  songs  and  piano- 
forte pieces  of  Grieg,  and  once  more  found  my- 
self moved  to  tears  of  delight. 

much  importance.  "  He  has  been  accused,"  he  writes,  "of  being 
too  Wagnerian,  but  that,  in  my  opinion,  is  a  shallow  judgment. 
In  his  songs  in  particular  he  is  all  Sinding.  Especially  inspired 
are  his  settings  of  Drachmann's  poems.  Lange-Mtiller  and  Sjtt- 
gren  also  are  extremely  poetic  and  refined  song-writers,  the  first- 
named  suggesting  his  Danish  origin,  while  the  other  is  more  cos- 
mopolitan." 

198 


GRIEG. 


Grieg 

Grieg  has  indeed  created  the  latest,  the  most 
modern,  atmosphere  in  music.  His  harmonies 
are  more  bold  and  daring  even  than  those  of 
the  dauntless  reformers  just  named,  and  they 
are  entirely  his  own ;  while  his  melodic  font 
seems  as  inexhaustible  as  Schubert's.  Before 
I  became  acquainted  with  the  music  of  Grieg 
I  ranked  Franz  as  second  to  Schubert  among 
all  the  song-writers.  Now  1  have  my  doubts 
in  regard  to  the  second  place.  When  I  hear 
Franz  I  think  he  ought  to  keep  it;  when  I  hear 
Grieg  I  think  it  belongs  to  him. 

Grieg  has  been  much  more  lucky  than  were 
Schubert  and  Franz  in  winning  contempora- 
neous fame  and  popularity.  His  countrymen, 
instead  of  decrying  him,  as  the  Germans  do 
their  men  of  genius,  feel  proud  of  him  ;  and  the 
Norwegian  Government  has  granted  him,  since 
1874,  an  annual  pension  of  1,600  crowns ;  which, 
with  the  income  from  his  works,  has  enabled 
him  to  apply  all  of  his  strength — of  which 
there  is  not  much,  as  he  has  been  a  sufferer 
from  a  pulmonary  complaint  ever  since  1860 — 
to  composition.  Never,  surely,  was  a  more 
praiseworthy  disposition  made  of  public  funds. 
In  England  his  popular  acceptance  has  been 
hastened  by  the  concerts  he  has  given  there 
with  the  aid  of  his  wife,  Nina  Grieg,  who  has 
occasionally  helped  him  by  her  soulful  inter- 

199 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


pretations  of  his  songs,  as  Clara  Schumann 
helped  her  husband  by  playing  his  piano-forte 
music.  It  is  likely,  too,  that  Grieg  found  it 
easier  to  strike  a  sympathetic  chord  in  Eng- 
land, because  he  is  partly  of  British  descent — 
his  great  -  grandfather,  who  wrote  his  name 
Greig,  having  been  a  Scotchman.  Grieg's 
mother,  however,  was  a  Norwegian,  and  from 
her  he  inherited  his  national  tendencies,  as 
Chopin  did  from  his  Polish  mother. 

While  Grieg  has  thus  won  his  way  to  the 
hearts  of  cultivated  amateurs,  the  professionals 
and  the  public  at  large  hardly  realize  as  yet  his 
exalted  rank  as  a  composer.  Once  more  we 
are  confronted  with  the  spectre  of  Jumbo. 
"  Grieg  has  written  no  symphonies,  oratorios, 
or  operas ;  ergo  he  cannot  be  one  of  the  great- 
est composers  !  "  As  I  have  already  discussed 
this  ridiculous  habit  of  measuring  genius  with  a 
yardstick  (p.  18),  I  need  not  dwell  on  it  again. 
Instead  of  sneering  at  Grieg  for  writing,  apart 
from  some  chamber-music,  only  short  pieces 
and  songs,  we  ought  to  congratulate  him  and 
ourselves  that  he  was  willing  to  put  his  best 
ideas  into  these  short  forms,  refusing  to  follow 
the  bad  example  of  Haydn,  Mozart,  and  Bee- 
thoven, Gounod  and  Bizet,  of  treating  them  in 
Cinderella  fashion,  keeping  all  their  happy 
thoughts  for  longer  works.  As  long  as  an 


Grieg 

artist  does  write  a  song,  he  ought  to  be  asked 
to  give  us  his  best  in  it;  and  if  he  does,  he 
ought  to  get  credit  for  it.  A  painter  can 
give  us  his  best  quite  as  well  in  a  canvas  a 
foot  wide  as  in  one  that  covers  a  whole  wall. 
In  fact,  artists  are  apt  to  esteem  a  paint- 
ing more  highly  in  inverse  proportion  to  its 
size. 

Another  misconception  that  has  retarded  the 
full  appreciation  of  Grieg  is  the  confusing  of 
the  national  traits  in  his  music  with  those  that 
are  the  product  of  his  individual  genius.  It  is 
quite  true  that  he  is  a  nationalist.  At  one  time 
he  was  in  danger  of  being  metamorphosed  into 
a  German ;  but  luckily  his  strong  individual- 
ity made  him  rebel  against  the  pedantries  of 
Moscheles  and  his  other  teachers  at  the  Leipzig 
conservatory.  He  sought  refuge  in  the  music 
of  Schumann,  Chopin,  and  Wagner;  and  finally 
returned  to  Norway,  where  he  came  under  the 
salutary  influence  of  the  Norwegian  composer 
Nordraak,  who  became  his  intimate  friend  and 
adviser.  "  It  was  as  though  scales  fell  from  my 
eyes,"  wrote  Grieg.  "Through  him,  for  the 
first  time,  I  became  acquainted  with  the  north- 
ern folk-song  and  learned  to  understand  my  own 
nature." 

The  loving  study  of  the  folk-song  of  his  coun- 
try could  not  but  affect  his  style  and  thought 

201 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


This  folk-music  is  healthy  and  robust,  often 
rugged  as  the  bold  rocks  that  overhang  the 
fjords,  and  it  delights  in  abrupt  changes;  its 
rhythms  are  irregular  and  capricious,  the  ton- 
ality uncertain  and  vacillating ;  and  there  is  a 
preference  for  the  minor  mode  and  quaint  inter- 
vals. In  all  these  respects  Grieg's  music  re- 
minds one  of  the  folk-songs  of  his  country ;  but 
while  his  compositions  are  unmistakably  Nor- 
wegian, it  is  important  to  remember  that  there 
is  much  more  of  Grieg  in  them  than  of  Norway. 
The  melodies,  though  redolent  of  their  native 
soil,  are  emphatically  his  own — you  do  not  find 
such  enchanting  melodies  even  among  Norwe- 
gian folk-songs — and  still  more  unmistakably 
his  own  are  his  bold  and  fascinating  harmonies; 
for  folk-music  in  its  primitive  state  has  no  har- 
monies at  all,  whereas  Grieg's  music,  as  I  have 
already  remarked,  represents  the  very  latest 
phase  in  the  evolution  of  harmony.*  His 

*  It  has  been  noted  by  some  commentators  that  Grieg,  like 
Liszt  and  Franz,  occasionally  makes  use  of  the  ecclesiastic  modes 
which  preceded  our  major  and  minor  in  the  evolution  of  harmony, 
and  which  sound  like  innovations  in  modern  music.  Grieg  writes 
to  me,  however,  that  so  far  as  these  church  modes  occur  in  his 
compositions — which  is  not  often — they  were  employed  by  him 
almost  unconsciously.  On  the  harmonic  side  of  music  he  has 
found  a  special  charm,  ever  since  his  student  days,  in  chromatic 
progressions.  Bach,  Mozart,  and  Wagner  were  his  teachers  in 
this  respect.  "  Wherever  these  immortal  masters  express  the 

202 


Grieg 

modulations  are  as  unique,  as  unexpected,  as 
abrupt,  yet  as  natural,  as  Schubert's  ;  and  they 
have  the  same  power  of  moving  us  to  tears. 
As  in  the  case  of  Chopin,  imitators  have  copied 
these  individual  peculiarities  of  Grieg's  genius 
without  any  thought  of  robbing  his  beehives, 
but  simply  under  the  delusion  that  they  were 
helping  themselves  to  the  common  stores  of 
wild  honey. 

The  commentators,  also,  failed  to  distinguish 
between  what  is  national  and  what  is  individual 
in  his  music,  and  thus  accused  him  of  "  speak- 
ing a  local  dialect  instead  of  the  world-language 
of  music,"  when  in  reality  he  was  simply  ex- 
pressing musical  ideas  in  an  original  way — his 
own  individual  style.  He  is  a  "  mannerist,"  not 
in  the  sense  of  being  addicted  to  "  uniformity 
of  manner,  especially  a  tasteless  uniformity, 
without  freedom  or  variety  ;  "  but  in  the  sense 
of  having  "  an  exceptionally  characteristic  mode 
or  method."  In  this  latter  sense  the  greatest 


deepest  feelings,"  he  writes,  "I  have  found  that  they  show  a 
preference  for  chromatic  progressions,  each  one  in  his  own  way. 
With  these  as  a  basis  I  gradually  developed  my  own  conception 
of  the  significance  of  the  chromatic  element.  Many  of  my  songs 
illustrate  my  method — for  example,  A  Swan  (Album  III.,  No.  30), 
and  especially  No.  33,  Geschieden.  See  also  the  Ballade,  op.  24." 
"The  realm  of  harmony,"  he  declares  on  another  page,  "was 
always  my  dream-world." 

203 


Scandinavian  Song- Writers 


geniuses  are  the  greatest  mannerists.  We  need 
to  hear  only  a  bar  or  two  of  Grieg's  music  to 
say  "  That's  Grieg  !  "  and  the  same  is  true  of 
the  music  of  Bach,  Beethoven,  Schubert,  Cho- 
pin, Wagner ;  but  not  of  the  minor  men  like 
Pleyel,  Lachner,  Hummel,  Macfarren.  A  first- 
class  genius  is  as  unmistakable  in  his  music  as 
in  his  face.* 

Turning  now  to  details,  can  anyone  hear  that 
exquisite  song,  The  First  Primrose,  without  be- 
ing moved  by  a  thrill  of  delight  like  that  which 
must  be  felt  by  a  naturalist  when  he  first  comes 
across  a  bird  of  paradise,  with  its  gorgeous  plu- 
mage so  different  in  pattern  and  coloring  from 

*  It  is  high  time  to  protest  against  the  injustice  which  has  so 
long  been  done  Grieg  of  crediting  all  that  is  most  charming  in  his 
music  to  the  national  muse.  "How  delightfully  Norwegian  !" 
amateurs  and  professionals  are  apt  to  exclaim,  when  they  ought 
to  say,  "How  delightfully  Griegian."  Nothing  could  be  more 
absurd  than  the  current  notion  that  Grieg  simply  gave  an  artistic 
setting  to  national  melodies,  as  Liszt  and  Brahms  did  in  their 
Hungarian  rhapsodies.  Among  his  seventy  works  there  are,  be- 
sides two  volumes  of  piano-forte  arrangements  of  popular  songs, 
only  three  (notably  op.  30,  35,  and  64)  in  which  he  has  incorporated 
Norwegian  melodies  ;  all  the  others  are  his  own.  Solvejg**  Lied  is 
obviously  a  conscious  imitation  of  the  national  music,  but  it  stands 
almost  alone  in  this  respect.  On  the  whole  there  is  probably 
more  of  the  Norwegian  coloring  in  Grieg's  piano-forte  music  than 
in  his  songs ;  but  the  more  we  study  Norwegian  folk-song  and  the 
Northern  composers  before  Grieg,  the  more  we  are  astounded  at 
his  originality. 

204 


Grieg 

that  of  all  other  birds  ?  When  I  first  heard  it,  I 
was  affected  as  I  was  when  I  saw  my  first  Mari- 
posa  Lily  in  California.  The  lily  seemed  too 
beautiful  for  reality,  and  the  song  seemed  like 
the  celestial  music  we  sometimes  hear  in  our 
dreams.  A  more  glorious,  original,  yet  simple 
song  was  never  written.  It  has  the  tenderness 
of  the  primrose,  the  freshness  of  spring,  the 
buoyancy  of  youth.  It  is  a  song  the  mere 
thought  of  which  sometimes  brings  tears  to 
my  eyes,  and  it  is  one  of  many  in  the  Grieg 
collection  that  have  that  effect.  It  is  print- 
ed in  the  third  volume  of  the  Peters  edition, 
with  which  I  advise  everyone  unfamiliar  with 
Grieg's  genius  to  begin.  In  my  copy  of  this 
volume  every  one  of  the  twelve  songs  has  a 
star,  while  the  primrose  song  and  two  others — 
A  Swan  and  The M instrel's  Song — I  have  marked 
with  two  stars.  A  Swan,  perhaps  even  more 
than  The  First  Primrose,  is  Grieg  in  every  bar. 
Sing  it  over  a  few  times,  and  if  it  does  not 
give  you  the  Grieg  fever,  which  will  make  you 
try  all  of  his  hundred  and  twenty  songs,  and 
then  eagerly  look  to  Bergen  for  more — you  have 
not  a  musical  soul.  What  a  superb  climax, 
what  a  world  of  feeling  in  the  two  bars  when 
this  swan,  silent  all  its  life,  sings  at  last !  The 
art  with  which  Grieg  has  embodied  in  his  music 
the  deeper  meaning  of  Ibsen's  poem,  is  marvel- 
205 


Scandinavian  Song- Writers 


lous.*  No  less  remarkable  is  the  realism  with 
which  the  romance  of  the  love-incantation  and 
regret  in  Ibsen's  The  Minstrel's  Song  is  mirrored 
in  Grieg's  music;  this,  too,  has  a  stirring 
climax  at  the  end.  This  same  volume  also  con- 
tains  the  popular  Solvejg's  Lied.  It  is  a  beauti- 
ful song,  but  not  one  of  the  very  best. 

The  fourth  volume  of  the  Peters  edition  (the 
official  and  best  edition,  with  English  versions 
by  F.  Corder)  is  even  a  more  remarkable  treas- 
ury of  song  than  the  third.  Eight  of  the  twelve 
songs  in  it  I  have  marked  with  two  stars — The 
Youth,  Springtide,  The  Wounded  Heart,  By  the 
Riverside,  A  Fair  Vision,  The  Old  Mother,  On  the 
Way  Home,  Friendship.  They  embrace  a  wide 
range  of  emotional  expression,  and  the  music 
of  all  is  enchanting.  What  melodic  breadth, 

*  Within  a  few  years  A  Swan  has  become  one  of  the  most  pop- 
ular of  his  songs.  It  was  sung  at  a  Colonne  concert  in  Paris, 
about  ten  years  ago,  by  the  Belgian  vocalist  Grimaud,  with  orches- 
tral accompaniment  under  the  direction  of  the  composer,  who  was 
delighted  with  the  big  dramatic  accents  with  which  he  brought  out 
the  tragic  import  of  the  poem  and  the  music.  He  would  have 
been  as  deeply  impressed  could  he  have  heard  it  as  interpreted  in 
New  York  by  Mme.  Nordica,  who  sings  it  with  the  emotional 
power  which  her  perfect  mastery  of  Wagnerian  song  has  taught 
her.  It  is  one  of  the  most  popular  songs  in  her  repertory.  Grieg 
wishes  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  words  "  Ja  da — da 
sangst  du"  (At  last  thou  sangest)  are  to  be  sung  " sempre  /.  if 
possible  even  with  a  crescendo,  and  by  no  means  diminuendo  and 
piano." 

206 


Grieg 

what  exquisite  tenderness,  what  superbly  swell- 
ing harmonies  and  entrancing  modulations  in 
Springtide  !  By  the  Riverside  is  one  of  the  best 
songs  to  study  the  peculiar  melodic  intervals 
and  harmonies  of  Grieg.  Every  bar  seems  to 
have  the  five  letters  of  his  name  stamped  on 
it,  and  the  charm  of  this  original  musical  phys- 
iognomy grows  on  you  like  the  expression  of  a 
face  that  indicates  character  as  well  as  beauty. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  The  Old  Mother,  which 
is  one  of  the  most  quaintly  and  originally  me- 
lodious of  all  the  songs,  and  well  illustrates 
Grieg's  way  of  dropping  from  one  key  into  an- 
other and  from  minor  to  major,  like  Schubert, 
yet  quite  unlike  him  too. 

The  Youth  is  one  of  those  songs  which  indi- 
cate that  despair  in  the  Far  North  where  the  sun 
does  not  rise  for  months  every  year,  must  be  a 
more  hopeless  feeling  than  elsewhere.  A  Ger- 
man might  write  such  a  song,  but  not  an  Italian 
or  a  Frenchman.  But  even  a  German  could 
hardly  realize  the  depth  of  despair  and  the 
agony  expressed  in  the  song  which  is  named 
Friendship,  but  should  be  called  False  Friend- 
ship. "  False  all  friends  are,"  the  poet  con- 
cludes, because  one  has  stolen  away  another's 
chosen  spouse.  The  strange,  weird  harmonies 
give  the  effect  of  an  intensified  minor.  Among 
Grieg's  songs  this  one  occupies  the  same  place 
207 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 

as  the  Doppelgdnger  does  among  Schubert's.  It 
is  one  of  my  favorites.  Poignant  grief  has  never 
been  expressed  more  bitterly.  Were  it  not  in 
three-four  time  it  might  be  used  as  a  heart- 
rending funeral  march.* 

No  composer  seems  to  have  been  able  to  write 
more  than  one  piece  of  this  kind.  Grieg,  how- 
ever,  has  a  counterpart  of  that  dolorous  song  in 
his  At  the  Bier  of  a  Young  Woman.  The  exquisite 
beauty  and  tenderness  of  the  music  to  the  words 
(beginning  a  bar  ahead)  "  Oh,  that  death  should 

*  Album  IV.  (my  references  are  always  to  the  Peters  edition) 
contains  undoubtedly  the  best  collection  of  Grieg's  songs.  Here 
we  breathe  the  air  of  his  native  country.  In  these  songs,  which 
differ  from  all  the  preceding  ones,  he  struck  a  tone  of  Norwegian 
Volksthiimlichkeit  which  was  new  at  the  time.  "  I  was  all  aflame 
with  enthusiasm, "  he  writes,  "when  I  became  acquainted  in  the 
spring  of  1880  with  the  poems  of  Vinje,  which  embody  a  deep 
philosophy  of  life,  and  in  course  of  eight  to  ten  days  I  composed 
not  only  the  songs  contained  in  the  fourth  volume,  but  others  by 
the  same  poet  which  are  not  yet  in  print.  A.  O.  Vinje  was  a 
peasant  by  birth.  He  attempted  with  his  prose  works  to  enlighten 
the  Norwegian  people,  and  these  writings,  together  with  his 
poems,  gave  him  a  great  national  importance."  Of  the  songs  re- 
ferred to,  Nos.  38  and  39 — Spring  and  The  Wounded— have  been 
published  also  in  an  arrangement  for  string  orchestra  with  the  title 
Zwei  Elegische  Melodien.  In  this  version  they  have  gained  great 
vogue  outside  of  his  country.  The  profound  melancholy  of  the 
poems  explains  the  solemn  strains  of  the  music,  but  as  there  are 
no  verses  to  go  with  the  orchestral  version  of  these  pieces,  he 
deemed  it  advisable  to  elucidate  them  by  giving  them  the  more 
significant  titles  of  Last  Spring  and  Heart-wounds. 
208 


Grieg 

stray  on  the  flowery  way,  break  a  blossom  so 
fair  !  "  would  alone  place  Grieg  in  the  first  rank 
of  song-writers.  And  there  is  still  another, 
The  Mother  Sings  (in  opus  60) — a  mother  bewail- 
ing her  child  in  the  grave — in  which  the  grief 
is  expressed  in  overwhelmingly  agonizing  har- 
monies. 

What  Schumann  said  of  Franz  (that,  were 
one  to  dwell  on  all  the  interesting  details,  one 
would  never  come  to  an  end)  must  be  applied 
to  Grieg  too.  I  have  spoken  of  only  two  or 
three  of  the  albums  or  collections,  and  there  are 
sixteen  of  them.*  They  are  not  all  of  equal 
value,  though  each  contains  good  numbers. 
Volume  v.,  in  which  At  the  Bier  of  a  Young 
Woman  is  incorporated,  includes  also  another  of 
the  very  best  songs,  one  that  I  would  not  part 
with  for  all  the  Lieder  Brahms  wrote — yet  I  am 
obliged  to  listen  to  Brahms  songs  at  every  con- 
cert while  I  have  never  heard  From  Monte  Pincio 
sung  in  public.  It  is  difficult  even  for  a  hard- 
ened critic  to  write  about  such  a  song  without 
"  gushing  "  like  a  school-girl.  Play  the  opening 
chords  and  ask  yourself  if  Schubert  himself 
could  have  conjured  up  the  atmosphere  and 


*  All  short  and  cheap,  by  the  way.     It  was  wise  in  Grieg  to  in- 
corporate all  his  works  in  the  Peters  edition,  thus  making  it  pos- 
sible for  even  poor  students  and  music-lovers  to  buy  them. 
209 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


mood  of  sunset  more  exquisitely  and  concisely 
than  Grieg  has  done  here  in  four  bars.  Note 
at  the  end  of  the  page  how  the  face  of  the  music 
assumes  a  sombre  expression  at  the  comparison 
of  the  mountain  in  the  pale  light  to  "  the  face  of 
the  dead."  Here  Grieg  is  a  word-painter  in 
music  as  literal  as  Liszt ;  and  again  on  the  sec- 
ond page  following,  where  "  mountain  horns 
sound  above,"  an  entrancing  strain  which  oc- 
curs again  at  the  end  of  the  song,  morendo — like 
an  echo  dying  away.  The  gay  melody  (vivo) 
which  repeatedly  interrupts  the  other  themes, 
and  the  melodic  strain  first  heard  to  the  words 
"  bounds  sweetly  near  us" — all  this  is  indescrib- 
ably beautiful;  but  it  must  be  played  with 
consummate  expression.  Grieg  has  noted  the 
expression  marks  minutely ;  but  a  genuine 
musician  does  not  need  them,  for  this  music, 
like  all  the  supreme  products  of  genius,  tells 
its  own  emotional  story  to  capable  inter- 
preters. 

It  is  impossible  in  the  limited  space  at  my 
command  to  more  than  mention  a  few  more  of 
my  favorites.  /  Love  Thee,  composed  in  1864, 
when  German  influences  still  prevailed,  sounds 
as  if  Grieg  had  undertaken  to  write  a  Schumann 
song,  and  succeeding  in  equalling  him  at  his 
best.  This  Lied  in  the  German  manner  is  set 
to  a  Scandinavian  poem  (Andersen).  Among 

210 


Grieg 

the  six  songs  of  opus  48,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
are  two  to  poems  by  the  Germans,  Geibel  and 
Uhland,  in  which  the  music  reveals  Grieg's  in- 
dividuality in  every  bar.  The  first  is  a  pensive 
love-song,  the  second  is  like  a  merry  folk-dance. 
These  are  two-star  songs.*  The  one-star  songs 
are  too  numerous  to  mention.  Besides  these 
there  are  some  that  seem  mediocre  in  compari- 
son, though  most  other  writers  might  feel  proud 
of  them.  Very  few  are  really  commonplace,  for 
Grieg  abhors  the  commonplace  as  Chopin  did. 
Harmonic  progressions  wear  off  like  the  im- 
pressions on  coins;  but  Grieg's  harmonies  are 
ever  new,  like  coins  fresh  from  the  mint — and 
most  of  them  gold.  The  last  set  of  his  songs, 
quite  recently  issued  as  opus  67,  contains  at  least 
four  gold  coins  of  a  high  denomination — The 
Mountain  Maid,  The  Tryst,  Love,  and  An  Evil 
Day.  The  picture  on  these  coins  is  unmistaka- 
bly Grieg  in  every  case. 

For  the  autumn  of  1900  Grieg  has  ready  a 

*  One  of  Grieg's  best  songs  is  the  Prologue  of  Aus  Fjeld  und 
Fjord,  opus  44.  In  1886  he  received  a  visit  from  the  poet  Drach- 
mann  and  the  two  made  an  excursion  to  the  Norwegian  mountains. 
One  day  they  became  acquainted  with  some  charming  women  who 
at  once  inspired  poet  and  composer  to  utter  their  sentiments  in  a 
joint  song.  The  epilogue  the  composer  intends  to  alter  in  a  future 
edition,  omitting  the  banale  strain  Aztf  der  Aim  da  giebts  Ka 
Sund,  which  he  had  used  because  the  poet  had  sung  it  as  he  had 
heard  it  in  the  Tyrol. 

211 


Scandinavian  Song- Writers 


further  collection  of  songs  which,  as  he  in- 
forms me,  are  of  a  cosmopolitan  character. 
The  underlying  poems  are  by  the  Danish  Otto 
Benzon.  Among  the  earlier  songs  we  find  the 
names  of  two  other  Danish  poets  who  inspired 
some  of  Grieg's  best  Lieder,  and  with  whom 
he  was  personally  acquainted — Hans  Christian 
Andersen  and  Drachmann.  During  the  Leip- 
zig period  (1858-1862)  German  poems  were 
utilized,  and  on  his  return  to  his  native  country 
the  Norwegian  Bjornsen,  Ibsen,  Vinje,  Rolfsen, 
Paulsen,  Munch,  and  others  inflamed  his  fancy. 
Bjornsen  and  Ibsen  reflect  in  their  works  the 
influence  of  the  national  legendary  lore,  with 
its  melancholy  and  its  power  of  "  saying  much 
in  a  few  words ; "  and  these  same  traits  are 
reflected  in  Grieg's  music,  which  is  always 
concise  and  pregnant  with  meaning.  "  The 
fundamental  trait  of  Norwegian  folk-song,  as 
contrasted  with  the  German  is,"  in  the  words 
of  Grieg,  "a  deep  melancholy,  which  may  sud- 
denly change  to  a  wild  unrestrained  gayety. 
Mysterious  gloom  and  indomitable  wildness — 
these  are  the  contrasts  of  Norwegian  folk- 
song " — and,  he  might  have  added,  of  much  of 
his  own  music. 

Like  all  the  great  song-writers,  Grieg  is  an 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  good  poetry,  and  he  has 
too  much  respect  for  what  he  admires  to  make 

212 


Grieg 

of  it  a  mere  scaffolding  for  his  music.  When  he 
composes,  his  prime  object  seems  not  so  much 
to  write  music  as  to  do  justice  to  the  poet's  subt- 
lest intentions.  To  make  the  poem  stand  out 
prominently,  to  emphasize  its  meaning — that 
is  evidently  his  object.  To  appreciate  the  con- 
scientiousness with  which  he  has  carried  out 
this  principle,  one  must  be  able  to  sing  his  songs 
in  the  language  of  the  poems.  Translations, 
however  good,  can  never  quite  take  the  place 
of  the  originals.  A  good  translator  must  not 
only  have  a  thorough  command  of  language, 
but  must  be  an  expert  musician — a  combination 
rarely  found.  As  translations  go,  those  of 
Grieg's  songs  are  by  no  means  among  the 
worst;  but  of  course  they  cannot  give  one  a 
correct  idea  of  Grieg's  declamation — the  coin- 
cidence of  his  melodic  accents  with  the  poetic 
accents,  which  is  as  conscientious  as  in  Wag- 
ner's music-dramas. 

Grieg  is  an  ardent  admirer  of  Wagner, 
while  he  dislikes  the  intriguing  Wagnerites  and 
the  imitators  who  try  to  say,  in  their  own  way, 
what  Wagner  said  a  thousand  times  better  be- 
fore them.  There  are  no  echoes  of  Wagner's 
ideas  in  his  songs;  but  he  frankly  admits  that  in 
the  songs  of  his  second  period,  and  still  more  in 
those  of  the  third,  he  endeavored  to  learn  from 
Wagner  how  to  perfect  his  declamation.  In 
213 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


some  cases,  as  for  example  in  the  prologue  of 
opus  44,  he  almost  adopted  the  recitative  style. 
But  on  the  whole  he  feels  no  inclination  to  fol- 
low in  the  path  of  the  modern  German  song- 
writers. He  does  not  care  to  have  the  melodic 
element  transferred  mainly  to  the  piano,  and 
does  not  sympathize  with  the  endeavors  to  en- 
graft Wagner's  operatic  style  on  the  Lied. 
"  The  lyrical  Dramatik  of  the  Lied"  he  writes, 
"  must,  in  my  view,  always  be  entirely  differ- 
ent from  that  of  the  music-drama." 

Some  of  Grieg's  songs,  like  some  of  Franz's, 
seem  too  intime  to  be  sung  in  a  hall  before  a 
mixed  public.  It  all  depends,  however,  on  the 
interpreting  artists.  A  few  years  ago,  Grieg 
tells  me,  he  was  dismayed  to  find  his  Cradle- 
song  (Album,  vol.  i.,  No.  7)  in  a  Leipzig  Gevvand- 
haus  programme.  This  song  seemed  to  him  ab- 
solutely impossible  in  the  concert-hall.  But — 
the  vocalist  was  Johann  Messchaert,  and  Arthur 
Nikisch  sat  at  the  piano.  After  a  few  lines  had 
been  sung,  a  great  silence  prevailed  in  the  hall. 
The  composer's  hopes  began  to  rise,  because 
the  performance  was  so  incomparably  beautiful. 
And  when  the  last  bar  had  been  sung,  the  au- 
dience expressed  its  satisfaction  in  an  outburst 
of  prolonged  applause.  Courage  and  talent 
combined  had  won  a  signal  triumph. 

If  the  state  of  Grieg's  health  had  permitted, 
214 


Grieg 

many  such  triumphs  might  have  been  won  in 
the  concert-halls  of  Europe  and  America  by 
himself  and  his  wife,  and  the  world  would  have 
become  familiar  sooner  with  some  of  his  most 
fascinating  Lieder,  As  it  was,  only  a  few  song- 
recitals  were  given  by  the  two,  in  Christiania, 
Copenhagen,  Leipzig,  Rome,  Paris,  and  Lon- 
don; but  those  who  were  privileged  to  hear 
these,  described  them  as  unique,  artistic  events. 
That  the  composer  should  reveal  the  poetic  de- 
tails of  the  piano  parts  as  no  else  could,  was  to 
be  expected  ;  but  everyone  was  surprised  that  a 
singer  who  had  not  been  heralded  as  one  of  the 
shining  lights  of  the  stage,  nevertheless  out- 
shone most  of  those  lights,  especially  in  the  in- 
telligence and  sympathy  with  which  she  entered 
into  the  intentions  of  the  composer,  while  giving 
the  poem  its  due  as  well  as  the  music.  Frau 
von  Holstein,  wife  of  the  composer  Franz  von 
Holstein,  and  a  personal  friend  of  Mendelssohn 
and  Schumann,  once  declared  that  Mme.  Grieg's 
singing  reminded  her  of  Jenny  Lind's  in  its  cap- 
tivating abandon,  dramatic  vivacity,  soulful 
treatment  of  the  poem,  and  unaffected  manner, 
unlike  that  of  the  typical  prima  donna.  Ed- 
mund Neupert  sent  her  one  volume  of  his  Etudes 
with  the  inscription,  "  To  Mme.  Nina  Grieg, 
whose  song  is  more  beautiful  and  warmer  than 
that  of  all  others."  Ibsen,  after  hearing  her  in- 
215 


Scandinavian  Song-Writers 


terpret  his  poems  as  set  to  music  by  Grieg, 
whispered,  shaking  the  hands  of  both,  the  one 
word  :  "  Understood."  Tchaikovsky  heard  her 
sing  Springtide  (Album,  vol.  iii.,  No.  38)  in 
Leipzig,  and  tears  came  to  his  eyes.  Subse- 
quently he  sent  her  his  own  songs,  with  a  cor- 
dial dedication. 

Mme.  Grieg  made  her  last  public  appearance 
in  London,  about  two  years  ago,  when  she  also 
sang  for  Queen  Victoria  at  Windsor.  Now  she 
only  sings  for  her  husband  and  his  friends.  He 
regrets  deeply  that  so  few  had  the  opportunity 
to  hear  her  when  her  voice  was  in  its  prime. 
At  that  time  he  hardly  realized  her  superiority 
to  the  average  professional  singer.  It  seemed 
to  him  a  matter  of  course  that  one  should  sing 
so  beautifully,  so  eloquently,  so  soulfully  as  she 
did.  Yet  her  talent  was  not  wasted.  It  in- 
spired Grieg  to  renewed  efforts.  His  best  songs 
were  written  for  her ;  they  embody  his  personal 
feelings,  and  he  confesses  that  he  could  no  more 
have  stopped  expressing  them  in  songs  than  he 
could  have  stopped  breathing.  It  is  an  interest- 
ing case,  showing  how  conjugal  affection  may 
be  an  inspirer  of  the  arts,  quite  as  well  as  the 
romantic  love  which  precedes  marriage.  In 
the  songs  of  the  second  period  (beginning,  say, 
with  the  Album,  vol.  iii.)  experts  will  notice  a 
greater  longing  for  depth  and  inclination  toward 
216 


Grieg 

reverie.  His  wife's  interpretations  gained  cor- 
respondingly in  soulfulness.  The  third,  or  pres- 
ent, period  appears  almost  like  a  combination 
of  the  two  preceding  ones,  but  enriched  by  new 
experiences. 


217 


VII 

Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

ITALY,  commonly  supposed  to  have  been  the 
1  cradle  of  song  and  the  natural  conservatory 
of  singers,  has  contributed  nothing  of  impor- 
tance to  the  treasures  of  the  Lied  or  lyric  art- 
song.  This  may  seem  strange  at  first  sight,  yet 
it  is  easily  explained  with  reference  to  national 
peculiarities  of  taste.  The  Italians,  of  course, 
have  always  had  their  folk-songs  of  all  varieties ; 
and  some  species  were  intermediate  between 
folk-music  and  art-music.  There  is  no  trust- 
worthy collection  of  old  Italian  folk-songs,  how- 
ever ;  and  there  is  reason  to  suspect  that  many 
which  are  supposed  to  be  such  are  really  oper- 
atic melodies  that  have  passed  from  the  stage 
to  the  people.  These  tunes  satisfied  the  popu- 
lace, while  the  educated  lovers  of  music  were 
interested  only  in  the  elaborate  operatic  arias 
and  despised  the  simple  short  songs;  wherefore, 
there  was  no  temptation  for  the  composers  to 
write  them,  or,  if  they  did  write  any,  to  put 
their  happiest  thoughts  into  them. 
218 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

In  these  respects  the  conditions  were  similar 
to  those  which,  as  we  have  seen,  prevailed  in 
Germany,  and  which  prevented  the  composers, 
up  to  Schubert,  from  writing  great  Lieder.  In 
Italy,  however,  there  were  additional  reasons 
for  the  absence  of  good  art-songs.  The  Italians 
have  at  all  times  shown  an  extreme  partiality 
for  melody,  at  the  expense  of  everything  else. 
If  the  "  words  "  given  to  the  composers  to  set 
to  music  did  not  fit  their  tunes,  so  much  the 
worse  for  the  words  ;  and  they  were  apt  to  be 
buried  anyway  amid  the  rank  profusion  of 
vocal  embroideries.  The  harmony,  too,  was  a 
mere  "  side  show,"  and  was  kept  as  simple  and 
conventional  as  possible.  Now,  since  harmonic 
elaboration  and  the  close  union,  in  accent  and 
sentiment,  of  the  music  with  the  words  are  the 
very  essence  of  the  Lied,  it  is  obvious  why 
Italian  musicians  have  done  so  little  for  it. 

Apart  from  the  considerations  here  advanced 
there  was  no  reason  why  such  composers  as 
Rossini,  Donizetti,  and  Verdi  should  not  have 
written  good  Lieder  and  plenty  of  them.  They 
had  the  requisite  genius,  not  only  melodic  but 
harmonic,  to  do  it;  and  Verdi,  in  particular, 
has  in  his  last  operas  shown  as  great  a  respect 
for  the  texts  underlying  his  music  as  Wagner 
ever  did.  In  our  time  two  of  the  younger 
operatic  composers,  Mascagni  and  Leoncavallo, 
219 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

have  written  sets  of  songs;  but  they  are  pain- 
fully empty,  and  were  probably  done  chiefly 
with  an  eye  to  their  German  admirers — just  as 
the  songs  of  such  men  as  Tosti,  Arditi,  Denza, 
Mattei,  and  Mariani  are  written  chiefly  for 
English  and  American  singers.  These  are 
drawing-room  ditties,  rather  than  Lieder.  A 
man  who  might  have  written  real  Lieder  is 
Liszt's  friend,  Sgambati,  but  he  lacks  the 
creative  faculty.  I  have  seldom  heard  a 
Lied  by  an  Italian  that  I  would  care  to  hear 
again. 

Passing  on  to  France  we  get  into  a  different 
atmosphere.  Whereas  the  melody-intoxicated 
Italian  pays  little  more  attention  to  the  words 
of  a  song  than  if  the  human  voice  were  a  flute, 
the  Frenchman  is  as  much  interested  in  the 
poem  as  in  the  music,  if  not  more  so.  The 
conditions  are  therefore  more  favorable  here 
for  a  genuine  Lied.  Yet  we  must  not  look  for 
real  Lieder  in  France.  We  found  them,  to  be 
sure,  in  Russia,  Scandinavia,  and  Hungary ; 
but  the  writers  of  them  had  all  been  to  school 
in  Germany,  and  Liszt  had  a  German  mother. 
The  French  have  countless  chansons  and  ro- 
mances, but  they  lack  the  depth  of  the  German 
Lied  both  in  the  poem  and  the  music ;  as  Liszt 
has  remarked,  there  is  no  Sehnsuch,  no  Gemiith, 
in  them — none  of  the  soulfulness,  the  senti- 

220 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

mental  yearning  and  romanticism,  which  are 
essential  to  the  Lied.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that 
French  composers  have  taken  the  lyric  song  so 
seriously  as  the  Germans  have  since  Schubert's 
day.  France  has  produced  no  great  song- 
specialists  like  Schubert,  Franz,  and  Jensen ; 
and  while  most  of  her  great  opera  composers 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  even  before, 
wrote  pretty  romances  too,  they  seldom  deigned 
to  put  their  best  ideas  into  them. 

When  a  Frenchman  writes  an  opera,  or  a 
book,  he  usually  has  something  interesting  to 
say.  But  in  going  over  hundreds  of  French 
songs  by  famous  writers,  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  an  opinion  at  first  hand,  I  have  been 
struck  painfully  by  the  rarity  of  good  ones. 
Many  are  dainty,  pretty,  rhythmically  piquant ; 
but  few  are  deep,  or  harmonically  original  and 
moving ;  while  the  majority  consist  of  empty 
verbiage,  musically  speaking. 

Take  those  of  Berlioz,  for  instance.  Wagner 
declared  that  Berlioz  had  taught  the  world  how 
one  can,  by  the  clever  use  of  orchestral  colors, 
hide  the  lack  of  ideas.  This  is  quite  true,  and 
it  is  in  the  songs  of  Berlioz  where  the  orchestra 
usually  does  not  lend  its  aid,  that  the  weakness 
of  his  inventive  faculty  is  made  most  obvious. 
In  the  beautifully  printed  collection  entitled 
"  33  melodies  pour  chant  et  piano  a  une  on  plusicurs 

221 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

voix  et  c/ioeur,"  there  is  not  one  that  I  should 
call  an  interesting  song ;  though  there  are 
pleasing  details  in  some  of  them,  and  the 
technique  is  ingenious.  As  a  song-writer  Ber- 
lioz is  a  French  Brahms.* 

It  was  not  Berlioz's  fault  that  new  ideas  so 
seldom  came  to  him,  though  we  may  chide  him 
for  not  reserving  any  of  those  he  had  for  his 
romances.  What  is  more  surprising  is  that  a 
composer  like  Bizet,  who  lavished  such  a  profu- 
sion of  enchanting  new  ideas  on  his  opera  Car- 
men and  his  L Arlesienne  music,  should  have 
acted  so  niggardly  toward  his  lyrics.  The  Span- 
ish serenade  (Ouvre  ton  cozur]  alone  seems  quite 
worthy  of  the  composer  of  Carmen ;  it  has  the 
same  quaint  spirit,  the  same  piquant  melody, 
and  delightfully  exotic  accompaniment;  also, 
what  we  so  rarely  find  in  a  French  song,  a  me- 
lodious bass  and  imitative  passages  in  the  ac- 
companiment. Two  other  good  songs  are  the 
Rfoe  de  la  bien-aimte  with  dreamy  music,  and 
J'aime  toujours.  In  general,  Bizet's  melody  is 
fresher,  his  harmonies  much  more  interesting, 

*  As  the  above  title  of  the  Richault  edition  of  thirty-three  songs 
by  Berlioz  indicates,  some  of  them  are  for  two  or  more  voices,  in 
some  cases  with  chorus.  The  complete  edition  of  Berlioz's  works, 
now  being  printed  by  Breitkopf  and  Hartel,  will  include  five 
songs  for  two  or  three  voices,  eleven  with  chorus,  and  twenty-six 
for  one  voice  with  piano-forte. 

222 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

* 

than  those  of  most  of  the  French  masters ;  but 
how  he  could  have  ever  written  such  school- 
girl harmonies  as  the  opening  bars  of  Le  Gascon, 
passes  my  comprehension. 

Gounod  wrote  a  considerable  number  of 
songs,  both  in  France  and  especially  during 
his  sojourn  in  England,  where,  according  to  A. 
Hervey,  the  Maid  of  Athens,  The  Fountain  mingles 
with  the  River,  Oh  !  that  we  two  were  maying,  The 
Worker,  and  There  is  a  green  hill  far  away,  have 
become  specially  popular.  Gounod  is  another 
man  of  undoubted  genius  who  makes  one 
wonder  that  the  same  pen  which  wrote  the  in- 
spired music  of  an  opera  like  Faust,  should  have 
been  capable  of  perpetrating  such  banalite's  as 
make  up  the  substance  of  most  of  his  songs ;  in 
which  the  piano  parts  seldom  rise  above  the 
level  of  guitar  accompaniments,  and  the  intro- 
ductory bars,  instead  of  foreshadowing  the 
poetry,  serve  only  as  a  means  of  giving  the 
singer  his  pitch.  Most  of  his  songs  are  mere 
drawing-room  music.  Piquant  details  one  finds 
here  and  there,  but  no  pregnant  ideas.  The 
Serenade  seems  to  me  the  best  of  these  songs. 
The  Valley  and  Aubade  also  have  merit.  The 
Ave  Maria  has  been  much  abused,  and  it  was,  of 
course,  a  bit  of  vandalism  to  take  Bach's  delight- 
ful prelude  and  utterly  mar  its  character  by 
adding  to  it  a  melody  which  requires  the  prel- 

223 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

* 

ude  to  be  taken,  as  Franz  said,  at  least  three 
times  as  slowly  as  it  ought  to  be.  At  the  same 
time  the  combination  makes  an  undeniably  in- 
teresting song  which  thousands  have  enjoyed 
who  would  otherwise  never  have  heard  of 
Bach. 

Of  the  songs  of  Saint-Saens  only  two  have 
interested  me — La  feuille  de  peuplier  and  Plainte. 
Saint-Saens  is  as  thorough  a  musician  as  any 
that  Germany  has  produced  ;  even  Wagner  and 
Liszt  were  astounded  at  his  feats  in  playing  the 
MS.  score  of  an  opera  like  Siegfried  at  sight. 
His  songs  betray  his  mastery  of  technique,  but 
he  begrudged  them  ideas  like  those  which 
charm  us  in  his  orchestral  works;  hence  he 
claims  only  passing  mention  in  a  book  on  the 
Lied. 

In  the  songs  of  Delibes  there  is  nothing  quite 
equal  to  the  best  things  in  his  operas  and  bal- 
lads ;  but  he  betrays  German  influences  more 
plainly  perhaps  than  any  other  French  song- 
writer, and  there  is  much  charm  in  some  of 
his  lyrics,  notably  in  Arioso,  The  Nightingale, 
Regrets,  Good-Day,  Suzanne,  and  the  Bird- 
Catcher. 

More  than  a  hundred  songs  were  written  by 
Godard,  and  among  them  an  unusual  propor- 
tion of  good  ones.     Floriaris  Song  is  charming — 
better  than  any  song  of  Gounod  or  Bizet.    Next 
224 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

in  merit  of  those  in  Schirmer's  album  is  A 
Flower  in  Exile.  The  Arabian  Song  is  as 
quaintly  exotic  as  Rubinstein's  Persian  Lieder. 
Other  good  ones  are  Sweet  Lassie,  Love,  Song 
of  the  Shepherd,  Farewell,  Naught  Else,  and  The 
Traveller,  a  splendidly  dramatic  ballad. 

Massenet's  songs  are  among  the  best  pro- 
duced in  France.  Adieu,  for  instance,  has  a 
spontaneous  melodic  flow,  and  the  harmonies 
are  not  so  bald  as  in  so  many  French  songs — 
including  some  of  his  own.  Sleep,  friend,  To 
the  dead  one,  and  October  roses  may  be  mentioned 
as  among  the  good  ones.  But  the  gem  of  them 
is  the  deservedly  famous  Ele"gie,  in  which  the 
melody  is  not  only  attractive  but  emotional, 
while  the  accompaniment  is  made  interesting 
by  imitative  touches. 

Among  the  best-known  writers  of  French 
songs  are  two  women,  Augusta  Holmes  and 
Cecile  Chaminade.  Augusta  Holmes  (who  was 
born  in  Paris,  of  Irish  parents)  has  written 
more  than  a  hundred  songs.  I  have  not  been 
able  to  find  any  evidence  of  inspiration  in  them. 
The  same  must  be  said  of  the  large  number  of 
songs  written  by  Mile.  Chaminade.  I  have 
seen  a  newspaper  paragraph  to  the  effect  that 
"  statistics  of  the  music-trade  inform  us  that 
more  of  her  works  are  sold  to-day  than  of  any 
other  composer  for  the  salon,"  and  I  have  read 
225 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

that  she  has  written  "melodies  surprisingly 
fresh,  harmonies  startling  in  originality."  The 
person  who  wrote  this  must  have  been  star- 
tlingly  unfamiliar  with  the  better  kind  of  song- 
literature.  If  Mile.  Chaminade  had  written 
"  harmonies  startling  in  originality  "  she  would 
not  be  the  most  popular  "salon"  composer,  but 
would  be  neglected  by  the  masses,  like  Schu- 
bert, Franz,  and  Grieg.  She  owes  her  popu- 
larity to  the  fact  that  she  writes  down  to  the 
level  of  those  who  prefer  skim-milk  to  cream, 
because  it  is  easier  to  digest.  When  her  har- 
monies do  deviate  from  the  beaten  paths  they 
are  apt  to  be  clumsy  and  amateurish.  Nor  are 
her  melodies  fresh  and  original.  She  usually 
maunders  along  in  a  platitudinous  way  that 
makes  me  wildly  impatient.  Many  of  her 
songs  are  effective  for  the  singers,  who  there- 
fore favor  them ;  but  I  have  not  found  one  to 
which  I  would  attach  a  star  as  a  badge  of  excel- 
lence, unless  it  be  the  Serenade  Sevillane.  Mile. 
Chaminade's  face  is  said  to  have  "  a  boyish 
look,"  and  there  is  no  specific  feminine  tender- 
ness in  her  songs — a  trait  which  she  shares  with 
other  female  composers,  who  seem  to  lack  both 
true  femininity  and  the  virile  faculty  of  creating 
ideas.  For  the  combination  of  these  traits  we 
must  go  to  men — to  Schubert,  Franz,  Grieg, 
Chopin,  MacDowell.  Strange  how  much  more 
226 


Italian  and  French  Song-Writers 

original  and  fascinating  women  are  in  litera- 
ture than  in  music  !  * 


*  I  refer,  of  course,  only  to  the  creative  side  of  the  art.  As  in- 
terpreters, especially  in  vocal  music,  women  are  quite  the  equals  of 
men,  and  first-class  sopranos  are  much  more  abundant  than  tenors 
of  the  same  rank.  As  listeners,  too,  and  patrons  of  music,  women 
are  far  ahead  of  men.  A  glance  at  any  concert-hall — in  America, 
at  any  rate — shows  that  if  it  were  not  for  the  women  there  would 
be  no  concerts. 


227 


VIII 

English  and  American  Song- Writers 

AS  late  as  1875  the  eminent  musical  critic  of 
the  London  Times,  Dr.  F.  Hueffer,  la- 
mented the  "almost  total  absence  of  what 
might  be  called  artistic  song "  in  England. 
The  cause  of  this  seemed  to  him  to  lie  partly  in 
the  prevailing  extent  to  which  English  popular 
poetry  took  the  narrative  form  of  the  ballad, 
partly  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  music-hall,  and 
partly  in  the  overpowering  influence  of  Men- 
delssohn and  his  imitators.  No  doubt  each  of 
these  suggestions  contains  a  part  of  the  truth  ; 
yet  the  main  reason  why  there  are  no  English 
songs  is  that  England  has  produced  no  com- 
posers of  the  first  rank.  Apart  from  the  operas 
of  Purcell  and  the  oratorios  of  Handel,  the 
operettas  of  Arthur  Sullivan  are  the  only  pro- 
ductions of  England  that  can  be  put  in  line 
with  the  best  work  of  their  kind  done  on  the 
continent.  Sullivan  has  written  songs  too — 
more  than  seventy — but  the  real  Lied  was  as 
much  beyond  him  as  grand  opera,  and  his  pro- 
228 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

ductions  are  mere  drawing-room  songs,  which 
accounts  for  their  great  popularity.  Had  Eng- 
land produced  a  man  like  Grieg,  he  would 
have  been  strong  enough  to  overcome  the  ad- 
verse influences  noted  by  Hueffer,  and  he 
would  have  found  plenty  of  suitable  English 
lyrics  to  stimulate  his  genius. 

Since  Hueffer  wrote  his  plaint  there  has  been 
some  improvement  as  regards  the  art-song.  A 
number  of  talented  and  thoroughly  trained 
musicians  have  endeavored  to  shake  off  the 
Mendelssohn  yoke  and  to  breathe  a  more  brac- 
ing atmosphere  than  that  of  the  music-hall : 
the  result  being  a  series  of  songs  that  deserve 
the  attention  of  others  than  the  English ;  while 
to  the  English  they  appeal  with  special  force 
because  they  do  not  have  to  be  sung  to  awk- 
ward and  ludicrous  translations  of  foreign  verse, 
but  are  set  to  popular  English  poetry.  Among 
the  composers  to  be  named  here  are  Goring 
Thomas,  Stanford,  Hubert  Parry,  Cowen,  and 
Mackenzie. 

The  early  death  of  Goring  Thomas  is  to  be 
greatly  deplored,  as  he  had  written  some  charm- 
ing songs,  among  them  Hope,  Spring  is  not  Dead, 
The  First  Rose,  Serenade,  Winds  in  the  Trees,  the 
exquisite  Chanson  d'Avril,  and,  best  of  all,  A 
Summer  Night — a  first-class  song  in  every  re- 
spect, with  novel  ideas,  plenty  of  melody,  a 
229 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

varied  accompaniment  and  a  passionate  climax. 
Villiers  Stanford,  who  has  made  a  valuable 
collection  of  fifty  Irish  melodies  and  whose 
Shamus  O'Brien,  imbued  with  the  genuine  spirit 
of  Irish  folk-music,  is  the  most  delightful  opera 
ever  written  on  the  British  isles — has  also  com- 
posed a  number  of  excellent  Lieder,  of  which 
La  Belle  Dame  Sans  Merci  is  the  best  known. 
Among  Cowen's  songs  there  would  be  more 
good  ones  had  he  written  fewer.  Hubert 
Parry's  songs  are  musicianly  always,  and  some 
of  them  betray  the  influence  of  Brahms ;  while 
his  treatment  of  the  piano-forte  part  is  in  the 
best  German  manner.  Mackenzie  also  sounds 
the  Brahms  note,  especially  in  O  Roaming  Wind. 
Better  songs  are  Spring  is  not  Dead,  The  First 
Rose,  and  especially  Hope,  which  is  admirable. 
There  are  many  other  English  song -writers 
from  Sterndale  Bennet  to  Amherst  Webber 
and  Coleridge-Taylor  who  might  be  consid- 
ered ;  but,  so  far  as  my  experience  goes,  their 
productions  have  not  done  anything  to  create 
a  national  or  individual  school  of  song. 

The  American  composer  is  coming  rapidly 
to  the  front.  It  is  not  likely  that  if  the  centen- 
nial celebration  of  our  independence  had  oc- 
curred a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  it  would 
have  been  deemed  necessary  to  go  abroad,  even 
to  a  Richard  Wagner,  for  a  festival  march.  It 
230 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

is  related  that  when  Mme.  Essipoff  wanted,  in 
1876,  to  make  up  a  programme  of  American 
compositions,  she  experienced  difficulty  in  find- 
ing the  requisite  number  of  pieces  coming  up 
to  the  required  standard.  She  would  have  no 
trouble  now.  Arthur  P.  Schmidt,  of  Boston, 
has  issued  a  "  Portrait  Catalogue  of  American 
Compositions  " — a  pamphlet  of  fifty-two  pages 
made  up  entirely  of  the  list  of  pieces  by  one  hun- 
dred and  eighteen  different  composers,  seven  of 
them  being  women — Mmes.  Beach,  Hood,  Lang, 
Lavallee,  Rogers,  Spencer,  and  Wood.  But 
this  list  is  far  from  being  exhaustive.  Many 
American  composers  have  works  printed  by 
Ditson,  Schuberth,  Schirmer,  and  other  pub- 
lishers, while  the  John  Church  Company,  of 
Cincinnati,  has  issued  a  book  called  Laurel 
Winners,  which  contains  biographic  sketches  of 
thirty  composers  who  are  represented  on  their 
list.  With  the  limited  space  at  my  command 
it  is  obviously  impossible  for  me  to  consider 
the  works  of  all  these  men  and  women,  and  we 
must  content  ourselves  with  a  bird's-eye  view 
of  the  situation.* 

*  A  book  by  Rupert  Hughes,  specially  devoted  to  American  com- 
posers, will  appear  about  the  same  time  as  this  volume.  Having 
seen  the  proof-sheets,  I  can  commend  it  as  an  admirable  and  much- 
needed  work.  Mr.  Hughes  went  so  far  in  his  conscientious  efforts 
to  arrive  at  just  estimates  as  to  examine  even  manuscripts.  He  is 

231 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

The  first  American  composer  whose  works 
evince  a  musical  scholarship  worthy  of  the  great 
Germans,  while  being  at  the  same  time  imbued 
with  creative  fancy  and  individuality,  is  Profes- 
sor John  K.  Paine,  of  Harvard.  His  best  work 
must  be  sought  in  his  compositions  for  orches- 
tra, which  display  a  thorough  mastery  of  his  art 
and  combine  classical  outline  with  the  romantic 
spirit.  Toward  the  song  he  has  obviously  felt 
no  strong  penchant,  for  he  has  written  only  six 
Lieder.  These,  however,  deserve  to  be  better 
known ;  especially  Moonlight,  which  is  a  charm- 
ing song,  and  the  Matin  Song.  There  are  dainty 
touches  in  A  Bird  upon  a  Rosy  Bough,  while  Early 
Spring  Time  has  a  peaceful,  almost  religious 
character,  suggesting  the  composer's  sacred 
works.  Professor  Paine  has  also  exerted  a 
wide  and  salutary  influence  on  music  in  Amer- 
ica through  his  pupils. 

Prominent  among  these  is  Arthur  Foote,  one 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Boston  school  of  compos- 
ers. He  has  written — among  other  things — 
about  forty  songs,  the  most  successful  of  which 
have  been  Irish  Folk-Song,  I'm  Wearing  awa\  On 
the  Way  to  Kew,  In  Picardie,  Love  me,  if  I  Live, 

in  some  cases  more  liberal  with  praise  than  I  feel  inclined  to  be ; 
but  I  admit  that,  in  the  case  of  living  composers,  who  get  so 
little  recognition  for  their  labors,  such  a  disposition  is  more  than 
pardonable. 

232 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

Elaine  s  Song,  The  Eden  Rose.  Those  which  Mr. 
Foote  himself  likes  best — and  my  judgment  co- 
incides with  his  —  are  On  the  Way  to  Kew,  In 
Picardie,  My  True  Love  hath  My  Heart,  Roumanian 
Song,  and  four  German  songs  to  poems  from 
Baumbach's  Lieder  eines  fahrenden  Gesellen.  Mr. 
Foote  thinks — and  here  I  again  agree  with  him 
— that  the  popularity  of  songs  depends  very 
largely  on  their  being  taken  up  by  concert- 
singers.  He  informs  me  that  the  two  of  his 
songs  which  have  had  the  widest  sale — Irish 
Folk-Song  and  I'm  Wearing  awa — were  both 
written  in  less  time  and  more  easily  than  almost 
any  others.  Mr.  Foote  is  a  great  admirer  of 
Franz,  and  some  of  his  lyrics  betray  the  salu- 
tary influence  of  that  master,  though  not  so 
strongly  as  Otto  Dresel's  do.  In  his  poetic  se- 
lections he  has  wisely  shown  a  strong  predilec- 
tion for  the  old  English  writers. 

Another  pupil  of  Professor  Paine  and  a  prom- 
inent song-composer  of  the  Boston  school  is 
Clayton  Johns.  In  his  songs,  too — of  which 
there  are  about  a  hundred — I  have  noted  here 
and  there  a  touch  of  Franz — as  in  Ask  whence 
comes  Sadness.  His  Winter  Journey  seems  like  a 
dainty  Russian  folk-song,  simple  and  plaintive. 
A  good  song  is  Were  la  Prince  Egyptian.  The 
general  level  of  Mr.  Johns's  songs  is  quite  high, 
and  he  probably  owes  his  popularity  partly  to 
233 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

the  fact  that  he  knows  how  to  write  accompani- 
ments that  are  simple  without  being  bald. 

G.  W.  Chad  wick,  who,  since  1897,  has  been 
director  of  the  New  England  Conservatory  of 
Music,  has  written  about  seventy-five  songs, 
among  which  are  some  of  the  most  original 
produced  in  America.  In  answer  to  some  ques- 
tions I  asked,  he  wrote :  "  I  cannot  say  that  I 
have  any  particular  favorites,  for  the  ones  I  used 
to  like  best  I  have  heard  so  much  that  I  get  very 
tired  of  them ;  especially  when  they  are  done 
backwards,  as  they  often  are.  The  ones  which 
seem  to  be  sung  the  most  are  Allah,  Before  the 
Dawn,  Oh  !  Let  Night  Speak  of  Me,  The  Sweet 
Wind  that  Blows,  Du  bist  wie  eine  Blume,  Bedouin 
Love  Song.  I  think  that  personally  I  like  my  little 
folk-song  Love  and  Joy,  sixteen  measures  long, 
as  well  as  any.  I  do  not  know  whether  you 
would  include  such  an  ambitious  thing  as  my 
ballad  Lochinvar,  for  baritone  and  orchestra, 
but  I  have  some  reason  to  think  that  it  is  as 
characteristic  as  any  of  my  works." 

Allah  is  deservedly  the  most  popular  of  Chad- 
wick's  songs.  It  is  not  only  a  good  song,  but  a 
great  one,  which  should  be  in  every  singer's 
repertory.  It  may  have  seemed  presumptuous 
on  Chadwick's  part  to  set  to  music  Thou  Art 
Just  Like  a  Flower,  after  so  many  eminent  for- 
eign masters  had  done  it ;  but  his  music  is  as 
234 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

charming  as  any  that  that  much-composed  song 
has  called  forth.  Among  the  others  which  I  like 
particularly  are  Nocturne,  Song  from  the  Persian, 
Serais'  Song,  Request,  Bedouin  Love  Song,  Green 
Grows  the  Willow,  He  Loves  Me. 

The  most  popular  of  American  composers 
and  song-writers  is  Reginald  De  Koven.  Of 
his  fifteen  operettas,  several  have  been  remark- 
ably successful,  Robin  Hood  alone  having  been 
sung  about  3,000  times  in  ten  years.  He  has 
written  about  one  hundred  and  thirty-five 
songs,  of  none  of  which  fewer  than  5,000  copies 
have  been  sold ;  while  of  Oh !  Promise  Me 
more  than  1,000,000  are  in  circulation.  Such 
remarkable  success,  of  course,  could  not  have 
been  won  had  not  De  Koven  been  willing  to 
write  songs  in  the  operetta  and  drawing-room 
styles;  but  it  would  be  unjust  to  brush  him 
aside  with  that  remark,  as  envious  detractors 
would  like  to  do.  His  memory,  no  doubt,  is 
obvious  in  some  of  his  pieces,  as  it  is  in  that  of 
most  composers ;  but  he  has  a  vein  of  his  own 
which  yields  an  abundant  supply  of  fresh  mel- 
ody, and  he  knows,  too,  how  to  render  an  ac- 
companiment piquant  and  attractive.  Next  to 
Oh !  Promise  Me,  the  best  known  of  his  songs 
are  A  Winter  Lullaby,  Indian  Love  Song,  For 
this,  I  Promise  Thee,  A  Recessional,  My  Love  Will 
Come  To-day,  Past  and  Future.  "  Generally 
235 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

speaking,"  Mr.  De  Koven  writes  to  me,  "  my 
own  favorite  songs  have  been  those  that  sold 
the  least." 

Ethelbert  Nevin  is  another  composer  of  the 
New  York  group  whose  songs  have  won  a  wide 
popularity.  Rupert  Hughes  calls  him  "  a  fer- 
vent worker  in  diamonds,"  and  it  is  certainly 
true  that  he  is  careful  as  to  details,  his  harmo- 
nies being  seldom  commonplace,  and  often  rich 
and  agreeable.  His  songs  are  very  singable, 
too,  but  his  melodic  vein  lacks  variety ;  so  that 
the  singing  of  a  number  of  his  songs  in  succes- 
sion creates  a  sense  of  monotony.  Among  the 
best  of  his  productions  are  Autumn  Sadness, 
'Twas  April,  Recall  Our  Love,  Airly  Beacon,  and 
Dites  Moi,  which  sounds  particularly  American. 

Among  the  composers  residing  in  New 
York  there  are,  too,  Henry  Holden  Huss  and 
Edgar  Stillman  Kelley,  whose  songs  are  not  so 
widely  known  as  they  deserve  to  be,  partly  be- 
cause so  few  of  them  are  in  print ;  though  both 
of  them  have  written  others  which,  it  is  to  be 
hoped,  will  soon  be  published.  These  songs  are 
better  than  many  that  are  known  to  all.  Singers 
are  singularly  slow  in  finding  out  what  is  good 
or  they  would  ere  this  have  put  on  their  reper- 
tories Huss's  They  that  Sow  in  Tears,  Spring, 
Just  Like  a  Lovely  Flower  (still  another  fine  set- 
ting of  the  favorite  Heine  poem),  The  Jess  mine 
236 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

Bushy  for  they  are  not  only  good  music,  but,  at 
the  same  time,  very  effective  for  concert-hall 
and  parlor  performance — which  cannot  be  said 
of  all  songs  of  their  grade  of  excellence.  As 
for  Kelley,  he  first  became  widely  known 
through  his  The  Lady  Picking  Mulberries,  which 
is  written  in  the  pentatonic  scale  and  has  won 
the  approbation  of  Chinese  experts,  as  well  as 
Occidentals.  He  lived  some  years  in  San 
Francisco,  where  he  had  excellent  opportun- 
ities for  studying  Chinese  music.  But  this  is 
merely  a  bit  of  local  color.  Apart  from  it, 
Kelley  has  a  remarkably  original  vein  of 
thought  and  expression.  Of  his  songs,  those 
most  sung  are  the  six  included  in  his  opus  6 
and  entitled  Phases  of  Love.  But  his  best  songs 
are  his  settings  of  Poe's  Eldorado  and  Israfel, 
opus  8,  dedicated  to  Robert  Franz,  who  wrote 
the  composer  an  appreciative  letter. 

Many  good  songs — and  thousands  of  medio- 
cre and  trashy  ones — have  been  written  by  other 
American  composers — more  than  a  hundred  of 
them ;  but  I  can  do  no  more  here  than  merely 
give  the  names  of  a  few  whose  songs  have  at- 
tracted more  or  less  attention — H.  W.  Loomis, 
Horatio  Parker,  Van  der  Stucken,  Gilchrist, 
Hadley,  Gerrit  Smith,  Homer  N.  Bartlett, 
Rubin  Goldmark,  C.  B.  Hawley,  H.  Millard, 
Victor  Harris,  Whitney  Coombs,  Homer  A. 
237 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

Norris,  G.  W.  Marston,  Victor  Herbert  (who, 
though  born  in  Ireland  and  educated  in  Ger- 
many, has  become  thoroughly  Americanized 
and  now  writes  the  best  and  most  popular  of 
operettas),  Bruno  Oscar  Klein,  Sebastian 
Schlesinger,  Walter  Damrosch  (these  three 
born  in  Germany),  George  Osgood,  Isidore 
Luckstone,  and  Edward  J.  Finck.* 

MACDOWELL 

Were  I  asked  to  name  the  two  greatest  living 
song-writers  I  should  say  Edvard  Grieg  and 
Edward  MacDowell.  There  is  a  certain  affin- 
ity between  these  two  composers,  traceable,  no 
doubt,  to  their  Scotch  ancestry.  Grieg  and 
Wagner  are  the  only  composers  whose  influ- 
ence can  be  distinctly  traced  here  and  there  in 
MacDowell's  songs ;  but  it  is  no  more  than  a  har- 
monic atmosphere  which  he  breathes  in  common 
with  them  when  he  gets  into  certain  emotion- 
al spheres.  His  ideas  are  always  his  own  and 
there  are  plenty  of  them.  One  thing  that  Mac- 

*  When  I  was  a  student  at  Harvard  I  used  to  play  'cello  and 
piano  duets  with  one  of  Longfellow's  daughters.  One  day  I 
played  my  brother's  Curfew  Bells  ("  Solemnly,  mournfully  "), 
and  the  poet,  who  occasionally  came  in  to  listen  to  our  music,  re- 
marked that  he  liked  it  better  than  any  other  setting  of  his  poems 
he  had  heard.  It  was  published  by  Ditson. 
238 


MACDOWELL. 


MacDowell 


Dowell  has  in  common  with  Grieg  and  Wagner 
is  what  one  of  his  pupils  has  aptly  called  an  im- 
pression of  "  outdoorness."  As  James  Huneker 
has  remarked,  "  MacDowell  is  fond  of  the  open 
air.  For  him  always  the  heather  and  the  wind 
that  sweeps  across  it,  the  crags  of  the  high- 
lands and  the  bonny  blue  of  the  sky."  The 
sultry  atmosphere  of  the  hot -house  never 
breathes  from  his  music,  but  always  the  bracing 
air  of  the  shady  forest  with  its  fairy  life,  or  the 
sunlit  field  with  the  birds  above.  It  is  music 
that  is  full  of  ozone  and  originality.  MacDow- 
ell is  undoubtedly  a  genius — "  not,"  as  Philip 
Hale  once  wittily  remarked,  "  a  Boston  genius, 
but  a  real  genius." 

Thinkers  are  rare  in  all  departments  of  mental 
activity,  and  thinkers  in  tones  rarest  of  all ;  but 
MacDowell  is  a  thinker ;  you  can  see  it  in  the 
portrait  included  in  this  volume,  as  well  as  you 
can  hear  it  in  his  music  ;  and  with  the  faculty 
of  meditation  he  unites  the  still  rarer  gift  of 
originating  ideas.  Rossini  was  once  asked  what 
were  the  main  requisites  for  a  great  singer. 
"  First,  voice,"  he  replied  ;  "  secondly,  voice ; 
thirdly,  voice."  From  his  florid  point  of  view 
he  was  right.  But  there  is  a  higher  point  of 
view,  particularly  for  composers.  If  I  were 
asked  what  are  the  three  first  requisites  of  a 
great  composer,  I  should  answer,  "  First,  ideas; 
239 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

secondly,  ideas ;  thirdly,  ideas."  Form  and  pol- 
ish, to  be  sure,  are  important,  too  ;  but  those  can 
be  taught  to  any  conservatory  pupil,  whereas 
ideas  come  from  heaven  and  cannot  be  created 
except  by  a  brain  born,  to  create  them.  Mac- 
Dowell  has  such  a  brain,  and  that  is  why  he  is 
a  genius ;  not  a  mere  imitator  and  echo,  like 
most  of  his  colleagues.  At  the  same  time  his 
music  is  always  moulded  and  polished  with  in- 
finite care  ;  and  he  has  the  same  horror  of  the 
commonplace  that  Chopin,  Wagner,  and  Grieg 
have  manifested.  A  regiment  of  soldiers  could 
not  make  him  write  a  stale  melody  or  a  platitu- 
dinous succession  of  chords,  such  as  constitute 
the  stock  in  trade  of  most  song-writers.  One  of 
the  greatest  charms  of  his  music  is  that  where 
you  expect  a  certain  chord  as  almost  inevitable, 
he  surprises  you  with  quite  another  one.  He 
has  the  faculty,  peculiar  to  the  highest  order  of 
genius,  of  evoking  tears  in  the  listener  with  a 
single  chord  or  modulation.  He  never  writes 
unless  he  has  something  new  and  interesting  to 
say,  and  when  he  has  said  it  he  stops.  A  slow 
and  hard  worker  himself,  he  wonders  at  the 
fertility  of  some  of  his  colleagues  who  seem  to 
shake  compositions  from  their  sleeves.  But  if 
these  colleagues  followed  his  example  of  writing 
only  when  they  had  something  new  to  say,  they 
would  never  write  at  all. 
240 


MacDowell 


It  would  be  difficult  to  decide  which  are  the 
most  beautiful  and  important  of  MacDowell's 
compositions,  his  thirty-nine  songs,  his  much 
more  numerous  piano-forte  pieces,  or  his  works 
for  the  orchestra  in  which  he  shows,  on  a  large 
scale,  the  same  exquisite  color-sense  that  so 
charms  us  in  his  piano-forte  parts  and  pieces. 
Here  we  are  concerned  with  his  songs  along. 
The  first  of  his  compositions  which  he  has  con- 
sidered worthy  of  perpetuation  in  print  are  the 
Two  Old  Songs  marked  as  opus  9.  The  first 
of  these,  though  a  setting  of  Burns's  "  Ye  banks 
and  braes  o'  bonnie  Doon,"  has  rather  the  Ger- 
man than  the  Scotch  atmosphere,  and  the  open- 
ing bars  vaguely  suggest  those  of  Liszt's  Kennst 
du  das  Land.  It  is  a  beautiful  song,  and  its 
spirit  is  indicated  by  the  expression-marks 
(which  the  composer,  as  usual,  has  carefully 
noted  in  English)  "  Slow,  with  pathos,  yet  sim- 
ply." No  one  could  hear  the  second  number 
of  opus  9  without  knowing  that  it  is  a  slumber- 
song,  and  takes  us  into  "misty  dreamland." 
This  emotional  realism  is  characteristic  of  Mac- 
Dowell's songs  in  general. 

Less  original  and  characteristic  than  the  two 
referred  to  are  the  five  songs  that  make  up  opus 
ii  and  12.  There  are  many  interesting  details 
in  them,  but  the  leading  ideas  are  not  individual 
enough  to  make  the  accidental  loss  of  these 

241 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

songs  —  as  that  of  most  of  the  others  would 
be — irreparable.  After  this  group  there  is  a 
long  interval  during  which  the  piano  and  the 
orchestra  engaged  the  composer's  attention, 
and  it  is  not  till  we  reach  opus  26  that  we  come 
across  another  group — six  songs  entitled  From 
an  Old  Garden,  the  verses  by  Margaret  Deland. 
"That's  MacDowell ! "  we  exclaim  as  soon  as 
we  begin  the  first  one,  The  Pansy ;  and  when 
we  have  heard  the  last  and  perhaps  the  best  of 
them,  The  Mignonette,  we  conclude  that  a  love- 
lier group  of  flower-songs  has  never  been  raised. 
MacDowell  has  not  set  to  music  Du  bist  wie 
eine  Blume,  but  he  has  written  songs  that  are 
like  flowers.  The  Clover  suggests  Schubert. 

The  Cradle  Hymn,  opus  33,  is  tender  and 
simple  without  being  specially  new ;  while  its 
companion,  Idyll,  is  one  of  the  most  original 
and  fascinating  of  all  the  songs.  "  Lightly, 
daintily,  not  too  slow,"  it  trips  along,  telling 
how  a  bumble-bee  kissed  a  bluebell,  with  har- 
monies quite  a  la  Tristan  and  Isolde — and  why 
not?— at  the  words  "Ah!  surely,  they're 
lovers."  In  My  Jean  the  music  is  as  Scotch  in 
every  bar  as  the  poem  itself. 

Special  attention  must  be  called  to  the  song 

preceding  this  one — Menie — which  is  the  saddest 

of  all  the  MacDowell  Lieder  and  one  of  the  very 

best.     I  know  of  nothing  in  the  whole  treasury 

242 


MacDowell 


of  songs,  from  Schubert  to  Grieg,  more  ex- 
quisitely melancholy,  more  ravishingly  tender, 
than  the  chords  which  translate  into  music 
the  words  "when  nature  all  is  sad  like  me." 
"  Sadly,  despondently,"  the  whole  song  is 
superscribed ;  and  though  the  despondency  is 
supposed  to  be  caused  primarily  by  the  scorn 
that's  in  a  maiden's  eye,  a  sympathetic  listener 
guesses  that  it  may  also  be,  in  part,  that  feeling 
of  discouragement  and  despair  which  comes  to 
a  man  of  genius  when  he  creates  a  thing  of  such 
subtle  beauty  that,  as  he  instinctively  realizes, 
it  will  be  born  to  blush  unseen  for  a  long  time, 
if  not  forever. 

The  most  popular  of  the  MacDowell  songs  at 
present  is  Thy  beaming  eyes.  It  fully  deserves 
its  vogue,  for  it  is  a  splendid  song,  though  not 
quite  equal  to  Menie,  or  some  of  the  later  ones. 
It  is  the  third  in  the  group  of  Six  Love  Songs, 
opus  40.  Perhaps  its  being  less  unlike  the 
songs  of  other  composers  has  caused  it  to  be 
taken  up  sooner  than  some  of  the  others  by  the 
public,  which  is  almost  as  shy  of  strangeness 
as  children  are.  The  remaining  songs  of  this 
group  are  all  good,  though  they  do  not  reveal 
any  new  phase  of  the  composer's  fancy. 

Original  and  fascinating  as  are  many  of  the 
songs  so  far  considered,  they  are  all  surpassed 
by  those  comprised  in  the  collection  entitled 

*43 


English  and  American  Song- Writers 

Eight  Songs  (opus  47),  which  cannot  be  too 
highly  commended  to  those  who  are  not  yet 
aware  or  convinced  that  MacDowell  belongs  in 
the  very  front  rank  of  song-writers.  For  three 
of  them — songs  of  trees  and  birds  and  brown 
eyes  and  love — MacDowell  has  written  his 
own  poems,  which  have  the  same  imaginative, 
romantic  character  as  his  music.  The  first  of 
these,  The  Robin  Sings  in  the  Apple  Tree,  with  its 
subdued  note  of  woe,  is  one  of  the  most  charm- 
ing of  modern  love-songs,  to  which  concert-sing- 
ers  and  amateurs  have  taken  a  great  fancy  of 
late.  Confidence  is  a  poetic  refutation  of  the  no- 
tion that  love  can  die,  enforced  by  the  eloquence 
of  fresh,  buoyant  music  which  puts  the  scoffers 
to  flight.  The  third,  The  West  Wind  Croons  in 
the  Cedar  Trees,  is  another  of  those  songs  which 
have  the  initials  E.  A.  M.  stamped  on  every 
bar.  MacDowell  does  not  attend  many  con- 
certs or  operatic  performances,  for  the  reason 
that  he  fears  being  influenced  unconsciously  by 
the  music  of  other  composers.  The  song  just 
named  is  one  of  many  that  prove  the  wisdom 
of  this  policy.  It  does  not  suggest  any  other 
composer,  but  is  as  original  as  a  new  orchid 
found  by  an  explorer  in  a  Brazilian  forest. 

Two  of  the  lyrics  in  this  collection  are  after 
Goethe,   and    both   are   surpassingly  fine.     In 
the   Midsummer  Lullaby    how    beautifully   the 
244 


MacDowell 


music  mirrors  the  silver  clouds  in  the  drowsy 
air,  and  the  swaying  reeds  and  rushes  of 
Goethe's  poem!  More  delightful  still  is  In 
tJie  Woods,  a  song  of  surprising  freshness — as 
inspired  as  a  Shakespearean  lyric.  Listen  to 
those  "la  la  la's"  on  page  13,  and  again  on  the 
next  page,  with  the  wondrous  underlying  har- 
monies and  the  airy,  tripping  measures  follow- 
ing, and  say  if  you  know  anything  more  ex- 
quisite in  all  musical  literature  !  Yet  even  this 
does  not  yet  represent  the  climax  of  Mac- 
Dowell's  genius  as  a  song-writer.  That  we 
find  among  the  three  of  these  Eight  Songs  which 
are  set  to  poems  by  W.  D.  Howells.  These 
poems  are  remarkably  well  suited  for  musical 
treatment;  and  MacDowell,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  was  the  first  to  discover  them  for  this 
purpose.  The  folk-song  Is  it  the  Shrewd 
October  Wind?  is  the  most  beautiful  of  Mac- 
Dowell's  songs  in  the  Scotch  vein.  Among  all 
real  folk-songs  is  there  one  which  is  more  deeply 
pathetic  than  this?  especially  in  the  last  line, 
where  the  girl,  whose  lover  has  left,  on  the 
lonely  threshold  cowers  down  and  cries.  In 
the  deepest  grief  there  is  a  sweet  relief  in  tears ; 
and  the  composer  seems  to  have  had  that  in 
mind  when  he  suddenly  changed  from  minor  to 
major  in  the  last  chord,  at  the  word  "cries" — 
a  most  subtle  touch  of  musical  psychology. 

245 


English  and  American  Song-Writers 

Through  the  Meadows  is  another  of  those  utterly 
MacDowellesque  songs,  the  individuality  and 
charm  of  which  the  pen  can  no  more  describe 
than  a  camera  can  reproduce  the  splendors  of  a 
sunset.  But  the  greatest  of  these  eight  songs 
is  The  Sea,  which  James  Huneker  has  justly 
called  "  the  strongest  song  of  the  sea  since 
Schubert's  Am  Meer."  The  rare  poetic  art 
with  which  Howells  brings  before  our  eyes  the 
picture  of  the  lover  sailing  away  to  sea,  while 
the  beloved  stands  on  the  shore  and  cries; 
followed  by  the  picture  of  the  wreck,  and  the 
lover  lying  asleep,  far  under,  dead  in  his  coral 
bed — is  duplicated  in  the  music,  which  shows 
a  marvellous  gift  of  emotional  coloring  in  its 
harmonies,  and  is,  in  all  other  respects,  a  perfect 
song.  It  is  not  only  the  best  of  these  Eight 
Songs,  it  is  the  best  of  all  the  MacDowell  songs, 
of  all  American  songs,  one  of  the  best  hundred 
songs  ever  written,  the  world  over.  I  shall 
never  forget  the  eagerness  and  the  delighted 
surprise  with  which  Paderewski  read  it  over 
when  I  made  him  acquainted  with  it. 

To  New  York  City  belongs  the  honor  of 
having  given  birth,  in  1861,  to  the  composer 
who  has  placed  American  music,  so  far  as  the 
Lied  and  the  piano-forte  are  concerned,  on  a 
level  with  the  best  that  is  done  in  Europe. 
MacDowell  got  his  musical  education  partly  at 
246 


Mac  Do  we  11 


home,  partly  in  Paris,  and  partly  in  Germany, 
where  one  of  his  teachers  was  Raff,  who 
strengthened  his  natural  inclination  toward 
pictorial  romanticism  in  music — programme- 
music  in  the  most  poetic  sense  of  the  word. 
In  1889  he  returned  to  America  and  took  up 
his  abode  in  Boston,  where  he  continued  to 
compose  and  teach  till  1896,  when  he  accepted 
an  appointment  as  professor  of  music  at  Co- 
lumbia University.*  His  summers  he  spends 
with  his  musical,  critical,  and  sympathetic  wife 
— who  is  a  great  comfort  and  aid  to  him — near 
Peterboro,  New  Hampshire.  Not  far  from  his 
house,  buried  in  the  dense  woods,  is  a  log-cabin 
whence  wonderful  harmonies  are  sometimes 
wafted  by  the  breezes.  Here  MacDowell  has 
composed  among  other  things  his  delightful 
Woodland  Sketches  and  Sea  Pieces  for  piano,  as 
well  as  the  last  seven  of  his  Lieder — the  Four 
Songs  of  opus  56  and  the  Three  Songs  of  opus  58, 
for  which  he  also  wrote  the  admirable  poems, 
the  quality  of  which  may  be  judged  by  the  fol- 
lowing, entitled  Sunrise  : 

Sunrise  gilds  the  crested  sea 

That  mocks  grim  Oban's  might ; 

But  at  his  feet  sways  sullenly 
A  ship  that  died  'the  night. 

*  A  sketch  of  MacDowell's  life  by  the  author  of  this  volume 
was  printed  in  the  Century  Magazine  of  January,  1897. 

247 


English  and  American  Song- Writers 

The  ocean's  breast  doth  throb  no  more 

For  such  a  wreck  as  she. 
The  rocks  gnaw  at  her  broken  heart ; 

The  sun  shines  pit'lessly. 

It  is  lucky  for  the  cause  of  American  music 
that  MacDowell  decided  —  it  was  merely  a 
question  of  choice — to  become  a  composer,  in- 
stead of  a  professional  poet.  We  have  had  sev- 
eral great  poets ;  but  the  poetic  quality  in  our 
music  had  been  rare  until  he  came.  It  animates 
all  of  these  last  seven  songs.  Several  of  them 
— like  Constancy,  Old  Lilac  Bushes,  A  Maid  Sings 
Light,  and  Long  Ago  (which  is  like  a  genuine 
folk-song,  with  the  added  harmonies  of  an  artist) 
will  please  all  persons  of  taste  at  a  first  hear- 
ing, while  improving,  like  all  good  music,  on 
repetition.  Others,  like  As  the  Gloaming  Shad- 
ows Creep  and  A  Winsome  Morning  Measure, 
have  deep  and  subtle  charms  which  only  inti- 
mate acquaintance  reveals,  and  then  we  love 
them  like  dear  friends.  One  of  my  favorites  is 
No.  2  of  opus  56 — The  Swan  Bent  Low  to  the 
Lily.  It  illustrates,  like  many  others  of  these 
thirty-nine  songs,  the  combination  of  feminine 
tenderness  with  passionate  manliness  which  is 
characteristic  of  MacDowell.  There  is  a  su- 
perb virility  and  vigor  in  all  his  music  and 
yet  his  favorite  expression-mark  is  "  tenderly." 
These  expression-marks  in  MacDowell's  music 
248 


MacDowell 


must  be  observed  most  carefully  if  the  singer 
and  the  player  are  to  reveal  its  essence.  It 
always  has  a  vocal  melody  that  charms  by  its 
own  freshness  and  beauty ;  yet  how  much  its 
eloquence  is  enhanced  if  the  pianist  knows  how 
to  accent  the  emotional  harmonies!  Modern 
taste  craves  the  "  bite  "  of  frequent  dissonance  ; 
yet  this  must  not  exist  for  its  own  sake,  but 
only  as  a  spice  for  the  melody — as  it  does  in  the 
songs  of  Edward  MacDowell. 

Few  persons  realize  how  young  an  art  music 
is.  Youngest  of  all  its  branches  is  the  art-song. 
The  time  between  Schubert  and  MacDowell 
is  less  than  a  century,  yet  what  treasures  of 
genius  we  have  been  able  to  glance  at  in  the 
pages  of  this  monograph ! 


249 


INDEX 


ABT,  166 

Accompaniments :  of  Trouba- 
dour songs,  13 ;  in  Beetho- 
ven's songs,  31 ;  in  popular  art 
songs,  35  ;  Weber's,  39 ;  Vogl 
&  Schubert,  51;  transposing, 
68,  149  ;  in  Schubert,  ico,  102 ; 
and  Schumann,  118-121 ;  in 
Franz,  147-152;  in  R.  Strauss, 
170-172 ;  in  Liszt,  178 ;  in 
Grieg,  203 

d' Albert,  E.,  173 

American  song-writers,  230-249 

Art-song — see  Lied 

Australians,  aboriginal,  5 

BACH,  A.  B.,  85,  106,  109 
Bach,  J.  S.,  19,  20,  143,  145,  146, 

U7 

Ballads,  107 

Beethoven,  21,  28-34,  61-63,  83 
Berlioz,  221 
Bird-song,  3,  9 
Bispham,  David,  142 
Bizet,  222 
Brahms,  141,  154-161,  188 

CAFFARELLI,  17 
Chadwick,  G.  W.,  234 
Chaminade,  Cecile,  225-227 
Chopin,  147,  191-194 


Chorals,  14 
Curschmann,  166 
Curzon,  68 

DB  KOVEN,  R.,  235 
Delibes,  224 
Donizetti,  17 
Dresel,  O.,  131 
Durchcomponirt,  70,  181 
Dvorak,  79,  190 

EHLERT,  141 

Ehrlich,  H.,  174 

Elson,  43,  84,  95,  107,  in,  162 

Engel,  C. ,  10 

English  song-writers,  228-230 

Esterhazy,  56 

FIELITZ,  173 

Finck,  E.  J..  86,  238 

Fiske,  John,  43 

Fletcher,  Alice,  4 

Folk-song.  7-16,  35,  180-184,  201- 
204,  210 

Foote,  Arthur,  232 

Franz,  Robert :  edits  Bach  and 
Handel,  21, 144 ;  and  Schubert, 
79,  82,  100;  on  Mendelssohn, 
in,  140;  on  Schumann,  115, 
120 ;  section  on,  123-154  ;  early 
influences,  124  ;  Schumann  and 


251 


Index 


Mendelssohn,  125,  126;  deaf- 
ness, 127,  128 ;  an  hour  with, 
128 ;  ignored  by  contempo- 
raries, 129 ;  a  generous  gift, 
130;  America's  share,  130,  131 ; 
his  friend  Dresel,  131 ;  his  wife, 
J33>  J34 1  number  of  songs, 
134  ;  critical,  135  ;  and  Wag- 
ner, 136-139 ;  his  name,  134  ; 
art-principles,  137,  138,  140  ; 
bel  canto,  141 ;  attitude  of  sing- 
ers, 142 ;  melodic  miniature 
work,  143  ;  chorals,  144 ;  church 
modes,  145  ;  influence  of  Cho- 
pin, 147 ;  modulations,  148  ;  ob- 
jects to  transpositions,  149 ; 
not  a  dramatic  composer,  150  ; 
tone-painting,  150 ;  not  a  local- 
colorist,  151 ;  proportion  of 
good  songs,  152 
French  song-writers,  220-227 
Friedlander,  Max,  22,  43,  66,  67, 

75,  76,  90,  102,  ill 
Fuller-Maitland,  122 

GERMAN  song-writers,  22-173 

Gluck,  18,  21-24 

Godard,  224 

Goethe,  27,  32,  35-37,  81,  104 

Goldmark,  C.,  173 

Gounod,  223 

Gregorian  chant,  7,  14 

Grieg,  Edward,  198-217 

Grieg,  Nina,  214-216 

Grove,  Sir  G. ,  u,  43,  52,  54,  6l, 

64,  95,  102,  in 
Gumbert,  166 


HALE,  PHILIP,  95,  239 
Handel,  19,  20 


Haydn,  21,  24-26 

Heine,  96,  97,  103,  118,  122,  139, 

180 

Herbert,  Victor,  238 
Holmes,  Augusta,  225 
Howells,  W.  D.,  245 
Hueffer,  F.,  133,  178,  228 
Hughes,  Rupert,  231,  236 
Huneker,  J.,  192,  239,  246 
Hungarian  song-writers,  174-184 
Huss,  H.  H.,  236 

ITALIAN  song-writers,  218-220 

JENSEN,  A.,  161-165 
Johns,  Clayton,  233 

KELLEY,  E.  S.,  236,  237 
Klein,  B.  O.,  173,  238 
Krehbiel,  H.  E.,  10 
Kucken,  166 

LEHMANN,  LILLI,  141 

Lied:  art-song  and  folk-song, 
3-21,  181-184,  201-204 ;  why 
neglected  before  Schubert, 
Preface,  18-20 ;  Gluck's  re- 
forms, 23  ;  Vogl  on,  50 ;  stro- 
phic  and  through-composed, 
70,  181 ;  form  and  ideas,  31, 
157-159,  181-184,  239,240;  bal- 
lads, 107  ;  bel  canto  in,  141  ;  in 
France,  220  ;  in  England,  228  ; 
a  German  product,  174 ;  in 
Italy,  218;  and  passim 

Lind,  Jenny,  3,  141 

Liszt,  51,  52,  71,  132,  148,  175- 
184 

Loewe,  105-109 


252 


Index 


MACDOVVBLL,  238-249 

Mackenzie,  230 

Mandyczewski,  66,  67,  82,  102 

Mascagni,  219 

Massenet,  225 

Mastersingers,  9 

Melody :  in  Italian  opera,  16,  17  ; 

German  vs.  Italian,  98-100 
Mendelssohn,  109,  112 
Minnesong,  9 
Mottl,  Felix,  173 
Mozart,  21,  26-28 

NATIONAL   song,  literature  of, 

10 

Nevin,  E.,  236 
Niecks,  F.,  160,  185,  191-193 
Niggli,  43.  i65 
Nordica,  Lillian,  172,  206 

PADBREWSKI,  194-196 

Paine,  J.  K.,  10,  43,  232 

Parker,  H. ,  237 

Parry,  H.,  n,  230 

Piano  parts  in  songs — see  under 
Accompaniments 

Poetry  :  and  real  vocal  music,  3, 
4 ;  of  savages,  5,  6 ;  in  Italian 
opera,  16-18 ;  in  Haydn's 
songs,  24  ;  German  folk-songs, 
35 ;  Schubert's  attitude  to- 
ward, 103,  104,  119 ;  ballads, 
107,  108 ;  in  Mendelssohn,  in  ; 
in  Schumann's  songs,  118-120 ; 
in  Franz's,  138-140 ;  in  Grieg's, 

212,  213 

Polyphonic  song,  15,  16 
Prochazka,  139,  143 
Purcell,  18 


RAFF,  166 
Reger,  Max,  173 
Reichardt,  34 
Reimann,  H.,  155,  160 
Reinecke,  166 
Reismann,  120 
Rheinberger,  J.,  173 
Riemann,  H.,  7,  79 
Rockstro,  8,  9 
Rossini,  17,  97 
Rubinstein,  184-188 
Runciman,  J.  F.,  155 

SAINT-SAENS,  224 

Savages,  songs  of,  4-6 

Scandinavian  song-writers,  197- 
217 

Schlesinger,  S. ,  238 

Schneider,  9 

Schubert :  admires  Zelter,  37 ; 
chapter  on,  40-104  ;  boyhood, 
41-43 ;  books  and  articles  on, 
43  ;  as  school  teacher,  44 ;  early 
songs,  44,  69  ;  a  "  Bohemian," 
45-47 1  friends,  45,  48  ;  "  Schu- 
bertiads,"  47 ;  improvises  dance 
music,  48 ;  meets  Vogl,  48 ; 
at  the  piano,  51 ;  modesty,  52  ; 
Erlking,  53,  67,  69,  71-76,  109 ; 
and  his  publishers,  53,  54; 
Wanderer,  53,  76,  103  ;  critics, 
54.  55 1  Mitllerlieder,  56,  65, 
82-85 !  love-affairs,  56-59 ;  real 
tragedy  of  his  life,  59;  praised 
by  Beethoven,  61 ;  moments 
of  creativeness,  63,  64 ;  The 
Dwarf,  64  ;  Winterreise,  65  ; 
fertility,  65  ;  number  of  songs, 
66,  67  ;  The  Trout,  66,  78,  80  ; 
Mignon  songs,  67,  Si,  82 ;  re- 


253 


Index 


vises  his  songs,  66,  67 ;  editor- 
ial corrections,  67 ;  transposi- 
tions, 68  ;  Margaret  at  Spin- 
ning- Wheel,  69,  70 ;  Rose  on 
the  Heath,  69  ;  Death  and  the 
Maiden,  72,  77  ;  rank  as  a  com- 
poser, 78 ;  Dvorak  on,  79 ; 
Serenade,  Hark,  hark,  the 
Lark,  80 ;  Ave  Maria,  80 ; 
editions  of  songs,  82;  Winter- 
Journey  cycle,  85-92 ;  high- 
water  mark  of  genius,  86; 
moves  to  tears,  86,  87  ;  still  an- 
other epoch,  92 ;  Sviansong 
group,  92-97;  epitaph,  97; 
what  died  with  him,  98;  as  a 
melodist,  98-100 ;  harmonic  in- 
novator, original  modulations, 
loo,  101 ;  spontaneity,  101 ; 
not  uncritical,  102-104  •  choice 
of  poems,  103 ;  ballads,  107 ; 
compared  with  Schumann,  117- 
120 ;  Rubinstein  on,  186 

Schumann,  Clara,  116 

Schumann,  Robert :  112-122 ; 
courtship  and  love,  112-115  '• 
joy  in  song-writing,  114;  best 
twenty  songs,  115,  116;  from 
genius  to  talent,  117 ;  compared 
with  Schubert,  117-120 ;  ro- 
manticism, 122  ;  Two  Grena- 
diers, 168 

Silcher,  183 

Sinding,  197 

Singers :  attitude  of,  toward 
songs,  Preface,  142,  178 ;  early 
Italian,  17 ;  Vogl  and  Schubert, 
49-51,  67 ;  Nina  Grieg,  216 ; 
Lehmann,  141 ;  Nordica,  172, 
206 


Slavic  song-writers,  184-196 

Songs :  of  birds,  3  ;  of  savages, 
4-6  ;  folk-songs,  7-16 ;  of  trou- 
badours, 9;  mediaeval  accom- 
paniments to,  13  ;  national,  lit- 
erature of,  10  ;  first  writers  of, 
12 ;  folk-songs  in  the  church, 
14 ;  for  piano,  Preface,  71, 138  ; 
and  passim  ;  see  Lied 

Spaun,  43,  63,  64 

Spohr,  37 

Stanford,  Villiers,  230 

Strauss,  Richard,  170-173 

Strophic  songs,  70,  181 

Sullivan,  Arthur,  228 

TAUBKRT,  166 
Tchaikovsky,  158,  188-190 
Thomas,  Goring,  229 
Through-composed    songs,    70, 

181 

Tosti,  220 
Troubadour  songs,  9,  12,  13 

VOGL,  J.  M.,  48,  49,  66 

WAGNER  :  prize  song,  9 ;  on 
folk-song,  15  ;  and  Franz,  136- 
139 ;  and  Brahms,  155,  156 ; 
influence  on  Jensen,  164 ;  on 
later  song-writers,  169  ;  his  own 
songs,  167-170 ;  on  Liszt,  177 

Waldmann,  139 

Weber,  38,  39 

Weingartner,  F.,  173 

Wodehouse,  Mrs.,  10 

Wolf,  Hugo,  173 

Women  in  music,  225-227 


ZELTER,  36 
Zumsteeg,  37,  69 


254 


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VIII.     English  and  American  Song  Writers 

Heretofore  there  has  been  no  book  to  guide 
amateurs  and  professionals  in  the  choice  of  the  best 
songs.  Mr.  Finck's  new  book  not  only  does  this  but 
gives  a  bird's-eye  view,  with  many  interesting 
biographic  details  and  descriptive  remarks,  of  the 
whole  field  of  song  in  the  countries  of  Europe  as  well 
as  in  America.  The  volume  is  especially  rich  in 
anecdotes. 


THE    MUSIC   LOVER'S    LIBRARY 

ALREADY  ISSUED 

The  Orchestra  and  Orchestral 
Music 

By  W.  J.  HENDERSON 

With  8  portraits.     I2mo,   $1.25   net 

CONTENTS 

I.     How  the  Orchestra  is  Constituted 
II.     How  the  Orchestra  is  Used 

III.  How  the  Orchestra  is  Directed 

IV.  How  the  Orchestra  Grew 
V.     How  Orchestral  Music  Grew 

1  "An  eminently  practical  work." 

— H.  E.  KREHBIEL,  in  the  New  York  Tribune. 
\  "  The  book  is  as  good  in  execution  as  in  plan,  and  should  find  a 
place  in  the  libraries  of  all  who  are  interested  in  orchestral  music." 

—Chicago  Evening  Post. 

f  "  The  readers  of  this  admirable  book  will  be  fully  equipped  for 
listening  intelligently  to  any  first-rate  orchestral  concert." 

— The  Churchman. 

\  "  Readable  as  well  as  valuable."— Brooklyn  Eagle . 

IN  PREPARATION 

The  Pianoforte  and  Its  Music 

By  H.  E.  KREHBIEL 

Author  of  "How  to  Listen  to  Music"  etc. 

CHARLES  SCRBNER'S  SONS 

PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 


A     000  637  803     8 


MI 
3S 

F4 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


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